The Rental Sector in Ireland 2024

This chapter looks at tenants who are in active 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.

As an additional data validation step, Revenue data on rent tax credits, employment and self-employment, and Department of Social Protection payments data from 2023 and 2024 were used in the validation of tenants protected identifier keys (PIKs). Only tenants with an active RTB tenancy registration ID associated with them were selected for further analysis for both private and approved housing body (AHB) tenancies. Table 4.1 shows the sample size of Tenants in this chapter. There were 105,004 private tenants and 22,513 AHB tenants included for the purposes of this analysis. Note: this may affect the representativeness of the statistics on tenants produced in this chapter. 

For context, there were more than 880,000 people living in households renting from private landlords in permanent housing units in Census 2022 and more than 75,000 people in households renting from a voluntary body.

Private Tenants - Age Profile

The median age of private renters was 34 in 2024. Some 8% of private renters were between 18 and 24 years old. More than two-thirds (68%) of private renters in the sample were aged between 25 and 44 years old. While 21% of private renters were aged between 45 and 65 years old. Some 3% of private tenants in the sample were aged 65 years and over (See Figure 4.1 and Table 4.2).

Private Tenants - Primary Source of Income

Employee income was the primary source of income for about three in four (73%) private tenants in 2024. For 16% of tenants, the main source of income was social welfare payments (excluding pensions) while for 5% it was self-employed income (See Figure 4.2 and Table 4.3).

Private Tenants - Income Distribution

Around one in ten private tenants had total gross income in 2024 of less than €10,000 while for approximately a third of tenants this was between €10,000 and €29,999. At the other end of the scale, 9% of private tenants had a total gross income of more than €80,000 (See Figure 4.3 and Table 4.4).

Private Tenants – Employment Sector

The most common sectors of employment for Private Tenants were Wholesale & Retail Trade (14%), Human Health & Social Work Activities (12%), Finance & Real Estate (10%) and Public Administration & Defence (10%) (See Figure 4.4 and Table 4.5).

Rent Burden - Private Tenants

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.

• 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 this rent paid per tenancy by the landlord reported number of occupants associated with the rental property.
• Disposable income is gross income less taxes and social insurance and is primarily derived from the CSO's Person Income Register which includes several sources of income from administrative file. 

Rent Burden is defined as median rent as a percentage of median disposable income of an individual tenant within a geographical area.

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.

Map 4.1 and Table 4.6 below shows the Rent Burden of private tenants by local authority in 2024. The four highest Rent Burdens were in Dublin – Fingal (28.5%), South Dublin (28.2%), Dublin City (27.1%), and Dún-Laoghaire Rathdown (26.7%). Outside of Dublin, the highest Rent Burdens were in Wicklow (27.6%) and Louth (26.1%). The lowest Rent Burdens were in Leitrim (18.4%), Monaghan and Longford (both 18.5%). The data within this map can be found in the PxStat table TRS38.

Map 4.2 shows the Rent Burden of private tenants by local electoral areas in 2024. The four highest Rent Burdens were in Dublin – Tallaght South (33.7%), Balbriggan (32.9%), Ongar (27.1%), and Ballyfermot-Drimnagh (30.5%). Outside of Dublin, the highest Rent Burdens were in Dundalk-Carlingford (30.8%) Athy (29.6%) and Arklow (29.5%). The lowest Rent Burdens were in Lismore in Waterford (16.4%), Carndonagh in Donegal (16.3%) and Cahir in Tipperary (15.9%). 

Affordability – Private Rents

Table 4.7 presents rent data from the RTB and income data from the CSO's Person Income Register 2024 to show various rent affordability thresholds (40%, 45%, 50% of the primary tenant’s disposable income).

Map 4.3 shows more than a third (34%) of all private tenants in South Dublin spent over 40% of their disposable income on rent in 2024, followed by Fingal (33%), Louth (33%) and Wicklow (33%). In contrast, only 18% of private tenants in Leitrim spent more than 40% of their disposable income on rent. The data within this map can be found in the PxStat table TRS38.

Map 4.4 shows the percentage of private tenants who pay 40% or more of their disposable income on rent by LEA in 2024. 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, Wicklow (66.7%) in 2024. The LEAs with the lowest percentages here were in Ballinamore, Leitrim (14.9%), Lismore, Waterford (14.5%), and Belmullet, Mayo (10.3%).

Older Private Renters (65 years and over)

In this section, the analysis focuses on private tenants who were aged 65 years and over in the private rental sector in 2024. Figure 4.5 below shows that Private Tenants who were 65 or over were spending on average 37% of their disposable income on rent. Almost four in ten (39%) of tenants who were 65 or over were spending more than 40% of their disposable income on rent. 

Figure 4.6 shows the BER rating profile of dwellings for private tenant’s who were aged 65 years and over. Looking at the BER ratings of older renters, the distribution of BER ratings is generally in line with the total BER stock. More than one-third (36%) of private rental properties rented by those aged 65 years and over are rated D or E, compared with 28% of all BER rated dwellings. 

State Pensions was the primary source of income for about one in three (33%) older tenants in 2024. For 25% of older tenants, the main source of income was private and occupational pensions, while for 19% it was social welfare payments (See Figure 4.7).

Younger Private Renters

In this section, the analysis focuses on private tenants who were aged between 18 to 30 years old in the private rental sector. The analysis from Figure 4.5 above shows that these younger private tenants were spending an average of 31% of their disposable income on rent. More than a third (34%) of younger tenants were spending more than 40% of their disposable income on rent. 

Employee income was the primary source of income for about six in ten (61%) younger tenants in 2024. For 16% of these tenants, the main source of income was higher & further education grants, while for 10% it was social welfare payments (See Figure 4.8).

Approved Housing Body (AHB) Tenants – Age Profile

The median age of AHB tenants was 46 in 2024. Compared with private rental sector tenants, the age distribution of AHB tenants generally skewed towards older age groups. Around 14% of these AHB renters were 65 years and older (See Figure 4.9).

AHB Tenants - Primary Source of Income

Employee income was the primary source of income for almost half (49%) of AHB tenants in 2024. For 36% of tenants, the main source of income was social welfare payments (excluding pensions) while for 7% it was self-employed income (See Figure 4.10).

AHB Tenants - Income Distribution

Around 7% of AHB tenants had total gross income of less than €10,000. More than four in ten AHB tenants had total gross income in 2024 of between €10,000 and €19,999. Almost nine in ten (88%) of AHB tenants had a total gross income of less than €40,000 (See Figure 4.11).

AHB Tenants – Employment Sector

The most common sectors of employment for AHB Tenants were Wholesale & Retail Trade (14%), Human Health & Social Work Activities (13%), Accommodation & Food Service Activities (11%), and Industry (11%) (See Figure 4.12).