This release is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.
Please note the data contained within this release cannot be compared directly with other measures of vacancy including those available from organisations outside the CSO. These measures may have distinct definitions of vacancy and also different methods of collecting their data. For further information on the data sources, linking procedures, and limitations of this release, see the Background Notes section.
More than two-thirds (67%) of private rental properties had a Building Energy Rating (BER) rating of A, B or C in 2024.
Over two-fifths (41%) of private rental properties were built between 2001-2010, while a further 13% were constructed since 2011.
The local authorities with the largest median total floor area among private rental properties were Roscommon, Galway County, and Donegal.
Over half (55%) of individual landlords in 2024 were aged 50-64.
Approximately 62% of individual landlords had a total gross income less than €60,000 in 2024.
In 2024, 27% of tenants had a total gross income below €20,000.
Private renters living in Dublin faced the highest median rent as a percentage of their disposable income in 2024.
Almost four in ten (39%) of tenants who were 65 or over were spending more than 40% of their disposable income on rent.
Examining individual landlords, the majority (55%) were aged between 50 and 64 years. More than three in ten (31%) individual landlords were aged 65 years and over. More than two-fifths (45%) of landlords had employee income as their primary source of income, while for landlords with 21 or more rental tenancies, 72% had residential rental income as their primary source of income.
The most common sector of employment for individual landlords was Financial & Real Estate Activities. More than half (54%) of landlords with 21 or more tenancies worked in this sector. Approximately 62% of landlords had a total gross income from all income sources of less than €60,000 in 2024. There were 4% of landlords who had income of more than €200,000. Some 44% of landlords in 2024 had a rental income of less than €10,000 with about three in ten receiving between €10,000 and €20,000 in rental income. Just over 1% received more than €100,000 in rental income.
The release also analyses non-household owners or company landlords. In 2024, there were 9,042 non-household owners of private rental properties. Most companies held a relatively small number of properties, with 60% having 1 to 2 tenancies, 31% with 3 to 20 tenancies, and 9% of non-household owners held 21 or more tenancies.
The analysis on tenants shows the most popular sector of employment for private tenants was Wholesale & Retail Trade in 2024. Almost three-quarters (73%) of tenants had employee earnings as their primary source of income. Social Welfare (excluding pensions) was the next highest primary income source for tenants (16%).
This release also looked at the Rent Burden of tenants. The analysis defines Rent Burden as median rent as a percentage of disposable income of an individual tenant. The data showed that Rent Burden was highest for tenants living in and around Dublin in 2024. Outside of Dublin, the highest Rent Burdens were in Wicklow and Louth. The four highest Rent Burdens by Local Electoral Area (LEA) were in Dublin – Tallaght South (33.7%), Balbriggan (32.9%), Ongar (27.1%), and Ballyfermot-Drimnagh (30.5%). The LEAs with the lowest percentages were in Ballinamore, Leitrim (14.9%), Lismore, Waterford (14.5%), and Belmullet, Mayo (10.3%).
More than a third (34%) of all private tenants living in South Dublin spent over 40% of their disposable income on rent in 2024, followed by Fingal (33%), Louth (33%), and Wicklow (33%). The LEAs with the highest percentage of private tenants paying 40% or more of their disposable income of rent were Balbriggan (71%), Tallaght South (69.9%), and Arklow (66.7%) in 2024.
The analysis also shows results for younger and older private tenants. Over one-third (36%) of private rental properties rented by those aged 65 years and over were rated D or E, compared with 28% of all BER rated dwellings. Employee income was the primary source of income for 61% of younger tenants in 2024.
This release presents a snapshot of the residential rental sector in Ireland at the end of 2024, based on administrative data sources. All statistics refer to the position at the reference date and should be interpreted as a point-in-time profile of the sector. Previously, the CSO published a release called The Rental Sector in Ireland 2021, which was categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release.
For the purposes of this report a rental is defined as an active tenancy registered with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). Rental properties, landlords, and tenants are those associated with the active tenancy in the RTB dataset. Statistics on the rental sector are presented separately for private tenancies and Approved Housing Body (AHB) tenancies, which are also registered with the RTB. This release is structured across three chapters: Rental Properties, Landlords, Tenants. In the Landlords chapter, results are shown for individual landlords and non-household owners or company landlords separately.
The RTB introduced its annual registration system in 2022. This new system has improved data quality with the introduction of a verified account approach for individuals, companies and agents as well as full integration of Eircodes.
The Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage and the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) have worked in collaboration with the CSO on this report.
The Government has committed over successive housing plans to introduce new protections for renters, to make affordable rental accommodation more accessible for people. The suite of actions set out aims to increase availability and affordability of housing, and to create a sustainable housing system into the future.
This integration of datasets was made possible using the National Data Infrastructure (NDI). The core concept of the NDI involves the collection, maintenance and storage, on all public sector data holdings, of the associated PPSN, Eircode and Unique Business Identifier whenever they are relevant to Public Sector Body transactions with customers. What is needed to achieve this, in most cases, is collection of the PPSN and home Eircode in transactions with people, and the UBI and business Eircode in transactions with businesses. The NDI plays an integral part in facilitating the CSO in developing new and improved statistical products for the benefit of the citizen and policymakers. It also supports the development of targeted policy interventions in Public Sector Bodies. With the increased use of PPSNs and Eircodes and the improving quality of RTB annual registration system data further and more detailed analysis of the rental sector will be possible.
The CSO would like to acknowledge the work of Sinead Ryan, who worked with the Housing division on this project as part of the CSO’s Graduate Programme. We wish to extend our appreciation and thanks to her for contributing to the analysis and production of this release.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office has today (05 November 2026) published The Rental Sector in Ireland 2024. This release is a point-in-time statistical analysis of the Irish Rental Sector on 31 December 2024. It provides information on rental properties, landlords, and tenants. As a CSO Frontier Series output, care must be taken when interpreting these results as methodologies may change and data sources may be incomplete.
Commenting on the release, Steven Conroy, Statistician, said: "This release presents a snapshot of the rental sector in Ireland as of 31 December 2024, based on administrative data sources. Statistics on the rental sector are presented separately for private and Approved Housing Body (AHB) tenancies. This data matching project used Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) data and linked it to other administrative data sources held by the CSO. The release is divided into three chapters: Rental Properties, Landlords, and Tenants.
Properties in the private rental sector were most likely to have a Building Energy Rating (BER) of C in 2024. Just over half of private rental properties have been constructed in the last 25 years where a property could be matched to a BER assessment. The total floor area (TFA) of private rental properties was highest in Roscommon, Galway County, and Donegal, while the lowest areas were in Dublin, particularly the inner city and in Cork City. AHB rental properties had a substantially greater proportion of A-rated homes, with 49% of AHB rentals having achieved an A rating in 2024. Among AHB rental properties, the largest median TFAs were recorded in Westmeath, Wexford, and Meath.”