Majority of estate agents expect more landlords to leave the market

New tenancy rules due to come into effect on March 1 cited as main reason

President of the SCSI Gerard O'Toole said constrained supply continues to drive house price growth and mounting affordability pressures for home buyers and renters.

The majority of estate agents across the country expect more landlords to leave the market over the coming year, as new tenancy rules come into effect and rent pressure zone restrictions are extended countrywide, a new report has said.

New tenancy rules due to come into effect on March 1 will cap rent increase at the rate of inflation or 2%, whichever is lower, countrywide, but this will not apply to newly built apartments or student specific accommodation. Landlords will be able to reset the rent at market value if the tenant leaves the tenancy voluntarily or the tenant breaks their obligations.

Resetting rents will not be allowed under no-fault evictions.

According to the latest Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) Annual Residential Review and Outlook report, 86% of estate agents said these new rules would encourage more landlords to leave the market.

The SCSI said the three main reasons agents cited for landlords leaving the market were “rent legislation being too complex and restrictive, net rental returns being too low, and landlords coming out of negative equity”.

The SCSI is calling on the Government to pause these rental reforms.

In addition to the new rules, from March 1, all new tenancies will have a minimum duration of six years. Ending tenancies after this point will only be allowed for certain reasons.

There are also restrictions being put in place over the sale of the property depending on whether the landlord is a larger or smaller landlord. A larger landlord is one that manages four properties or more.

The SCSI report also found estate agents expect national property prices to increase by an average of 4% this year,  with seven out of 10 agents reporting low levels of stock.

The report said 83% of estate agents believe prices are either rising and will level off soon or have already peaked.

President of the SCSI Gerard O’Toole said constrained supply continues to drive house price growth and mounting affordability pressures for home buyers and renters.

“Clearly low levels of new housing stock continue to challenge efforts to meet both pent-up and ongoing accommodation demands. In that context, the confirmation by the CSO recently that over 36,000 new homes were completed in 2025, an increase of over 20% on the 2024 figure, is positive news,” he said.

“We believe the increase shows the effectiveness of Government measures to improve viability, such as Croí Cónaithe and the VAT reduction on the sale of new apartments. We expect these and other measures such as help to buy, shared equity and cost rental to deliver a greater volume of apartment units this year and next.” 

The report contained an affordability assessment which looked at a range of scenarios for a couple earning €112,000 a year and availing of the help-to-buy scheme towards their 10% deposit in its latest report.

The SCSI said the scenarios demonstrate the affordability gap between the total mortgage purchase limit available to a couple on average incomes looking to buy their first home and median new house purchase prices in four different locations.

The assessment showed a three bedroom semi-detached home was unaffordable to this couple in Wicklow, Kildare, and Meath. While the margin of unaffordability was comparatively low for this house type in Meath and Kildare at €2,000, in Wicklow the figure was €24,500.

However, that couple could afford a three bedroom semi-detached home in Cork.