A CSO Frontier Series Output- What is this?
This chapter looks at tenants who are in rental tenancies. These tenants are identified from Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) data. A landlord must make reasonable effort to collect PPSNs of all tenants but in many cases the RTB data only includes at most one tenant per tenancy. Therefore, not all tenants will be captured in this analysis. Table 4.1 details the numbers of tenants from 2017 to the first half of 2021 available in the RTB data and the percentage with valid Protected Identifier Keys (PIKs) allowing them to be linked. These include tenants in Approved Housing Body (AHB) tenancies.
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Rent Burden The analysis of rent as a percentage of disposable income is an experimental analysis and care should be taken with interpretation due to limitations of the data sources. There are 118,730 tenants included in these calculations with active tenancies in 2019. The rent paid per tenancy is the reported rent provided by the landlord when registering the tenancy, individual rent is estimated for a tenant by dividing total tenancy rent by the landlord reported number of occupants - which may include children - associated with the rental property. As it is an estimate, this may lead to an underrepresentation or overrepresentation of the rent burden of the individual tenants and biases for areas where renters are predominately families. There are various tenants excluded from this analysis to ensure the figures here best represent the true rent burden of private rental tenants. See Background Notes and Methodology for details on these exclusions. |
The rent for each tenant was calculated as a percentage of their disposable income (using 2019 data for both) and the median of these percentages per local authority are shown in Map 4.1 below. The four highest medians were in Dublin – Dublin City (29.3%), Dún-Laoghaire Rathdown (28.5%), Fingal (27.8%) and South Dublin (27.0%). Outside of Dublin, the highest medians were in Wicklow (26.1%) and Galway City (25.2%). The lowest medians were in Leitrim (16.5%), Roscommon (16.8%) and Cavan (16.8%).
The rent for each tenant was calculated as the rent in the RTB data divided by the number of occupants of the property. Disposable income is gross income less taxes and social insurance. See Background Notes and Methodology.
The data within this map can be found in the PxStat table TRS21.
The rent for each tenant was calculated as a percentage of their disposable income (using 2019 data for both) and the median of these percentages are shown by Local Electoral Area (LEA) in Map 4.2. The 10 LEAs with the highest medians were spread all around Dublin, including North Inner City (31.1%), Howth-Malahide (29.5%), Kimmage-Rathmines (29.2%) and Cabra-Glasnevin (29.2%).
The median for rent as a percentage of disposable income was 28.0% in Galway City Central, the highest outside Dublin. Some LEAs with very low medians included Cardonagh in Donegal (13.4%), Ballinasloe in Galway (14.2%) and Ballinamore in Leitrim (14.4%).
The data within this map can be found in the PxStat table TRS22.
Over a third (36.1%) of all tenants in Dublin City spent over 35% of their disposable income on rent in 2019, followed by Dún Laoighaire-Rathdown (35.7%), Fingal (34.0%), South Dublin (32.3%) and Wicklow (30.5%). In contrast, only 13.0% of tenants in Leitrim spent over 35% of their disposable income on rent. See Map 4.3.
The data within this map - and showing percentage of tenants over 30% and 40% thresholds - can be found in the PxStat table TRS21.
Over two-fifths of tenants (40.4%) in the North Inner City LEA in Dublin spent over 35% of their disposable income on rent in 2019. See Map 4.4.
There were a further 39 LEAs where more than 30% of tenants spent over 35% of their disposable income on rent. These were nearly all in Dublin, and its surrounding areas, with a few exceptions in the cities of Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. The LEAs with the lowest proportion of tenants who spent over 35% of their disposable income on rent were outside of major settlements – Ballinamore in Leitrim (5.7%), Carrick-on-Suir in Tipperary (8.9%) and Castleisland in Kerry (9.9%).
The data within this map - and showing percentage of tenants over 30% and 40% thresholds - can be found in the PxStat table TRS22.
Tenants who are 65 or over are spending the most - 34.9% - of their disposable income on rent. This is next highest (33.8%) for the under 30 age group (28.0%) and lowest for the 30-44 age group (22.5%).
Close to half (49.5%) of tenants who are 65 or over are spending more than 35% of their disposable income on rent. This is just over a third (33.8%) for tenants who are under 30 while only 23.4% of those between 30 and 44 are spending over 35% of their income on rent. See Figure 4.1.
The data within this graph - and showing percentage of tenants over 30% and 40% thresholds - can be found in the PxStat table TRS25.
| age_group | Median Rent as Percentage of Disposable Income | Percentage of Tenants where Rent is over 35% of Disposable Income |
|---|---|---|
| 0-29 | 28 | 33.8 |
| 30-44 | 22.5 | 23.4 |
| 45-64 | 24.2 | 29.8 |
| 65+ | 34.9 | 49.5 |
Employee income was the primary source of income for about three in four (75,2%) tenants in 2019. For 17.6% of tenants, the main source of income was social welfare payments while for 3% it was self-employed income. See Figure 4.2.
The data within this graph can be found in the PxStat table TRS23.
| highest_inc_type | Percentage in Income Group |
|---|---|
| Employee Income | 71 |
| Social Welfare (excl. Pensions) | 20.6 |
| Self-employed Income | 3.2 |
| Director Income | 1.9 |
| State Pensions | 1.7 |
| Higher & Further Education Grants | 0.8 |
| Private & Occupational Pensions | 0.5 |
| Any Rental income | 0.3 |
Around one in ten tenants had total gross income in 2019 of less than €10,000 while for about a quarter of tenants this was between €10,000 and €19,999. In total, 35.8% of tenants had a total gross income of less than €20,000. At the other end of the scale, 5.5% had a total gross income of over €80,000. See Figure 4.3.
The data within this graph can be found in the PxStat table TRS24.
| inc_grp | Percentage in Income Group |
|---|---|
| Up to €9,999 | 11.5 |
| €10,000-€19,999 | 24.3 |
| €20,000-€29,999 | 22.1 |
| €30,000-€39,999 | 16 |
| €40,000-€49,999 | 9.3 |
| €50,000-€59,999 | 5.4 |
| €60,000-€69,999 | 3.6 |
| €70,000-€79,999 | 2.3 |
| €80,000-€89,999 | 1.5 |
| €90,000-€99,999 | 1 |
| €100,000 and above | 3 |
Link to all interactive tables for this publication: PxStat
Go to next chapter: Background Notes and Methodology
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