More than 11% of registered tenancies are owned by landlords with over 100 properties

New figures show that at the end of March, there were 103,035 private landlords registered with the RTB, a 6,333 increase on June 2023 when there were 96,702 in the market.

Landlords with more than 100 properties account for over 11% of all registered tenancies across the country, new data from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) shows.

New figures show that at the end of March, there were 103,035 private landlords registered with the RTB, a 6,333 increase on June 2023 when there were 96,702 in the market.

The RTB also sets out that there is more than double the number of tenancies compared to the number of landlords in the Irish rental market.

The percentage of landlords with over 100 properties is significantly increased in Dublin, where they account for 22.55% of all private tenancies registered in the first three months of the year. This compares to a nationwide average of just 2.56%, when Dublin is excluded.

However, the percentage of landlords who own just one rental property is the highest at 26.16%. Nationwide, landlords with between one and three properties makes up 46.8% of the rental market.

However, this is slightly lower in Dublin, where landlords with between one and three properties make up 40.3% of the market in the capital city.

This is the first dataset outlining the number of landlords registered with the RTB since 2020, as part of the new ‘Profile of the Register’ series. The regulator has said that the changes to the registration processes has allowed it to collect more up-to-date information on tenancies and landlords than they previously could.

However, it says that due to these changes, statistics before June 2023 are not comparable to the latest datasets. This means that previous statistics on the number of landlords, last published in 2020, are not comparable.

While the number of landlords has gone up across the last year, there has also been a jump in the number of tenancies registered with the RTB.

At the end of March, there were 230,006 tenancies registered across the entire country. This rose from 213,177 at the end of June 2023 — an increase of almost 8%.

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The most tenancies were seen in Dublin, where there were 99,630 reported, while Cork was in second place with 25,041 tenancies registered. Galway and Limerick followed behind, with 13,139 and 8,723 respectively. The county with the lowest number of rental agreements however is Leitrim, where there are just 1,128 private tenancies.

It also found that there are slightly more tenancies for apartments compared to houses, with 119,329 recorded. This compares to the 110,667 tenancies recorded in houses.

Of the tenancies that were registered in the first three months of this year, 81% of them were in Rent Pressure Zones (RPZ). These RPZs are areas in the country where rent is at a high level, with yearly increases being capped at 2%.

The most common dwelling sizes for rental tenancies are two- and three-bed properties, with those accounting for 155,196 tenancies registered in the first three months of the year.

Brian Gallwey, research officer with the RTB, said that the new dataset marks “the culmination of significant work to improve the RTB’s registration processes and the accuracy of data on the Register since 2022”.

The latest publication from the RTB comes a week on from Central Statistics Office research detailing that up to 30% of private tenancies may not be registered with the regulator.