Ms Margaret McCormick:

Absolutely. There is no question but that we would lose more landlords. We need to stem the exodus of property owners from the sector. It is a totally dysfunctional market and we need substantial and meaningful change to the tax treatment to prevent that. This is an emergency. For six years, the RPZs have been in place and levels of rent have been restricted depending on when the landlord went into the sector. When the RPZs were introduced, there was one level and landlords were restricted to that level. The indebtedness of a landlord was not taken into account in regard to the restrictions and the degree to which they are allowed to increase rents. For a highly indebted landlord, if costs are increasing and the income is restricted, that is just not workable as a business. The yield is too low and trades are running at about 30%, but landlords are restricted to 2% increases and the mortgage interest rate has increased. It is just not functioning.