Dr. Michael Byrne:

I could talk about this issue for a long time and, therefore, I hope the Cathaoirleach will cut me off when the time calls for it. Landlords are leaving the market. That is for sure but that will always be the case. We know that many landlords purchase a rental property as a retirement investment so there is a natural endpoint to that investment. Given the age profile in the sector, it is not surprising that we would see a number of exits associated with that. RTB research published in summer 2021 showed that, if memory serves, 14% of landlords had owner-occupier mortgages, which suggests that they may be accidental landlords, although not everybody likes that term. It would be expected that some of those people would be looking for opportunities to leave the sector. Looking at the nature of our private rental sector and the type of investors within it, I would argue that it should not be too surprising that there is volatility. That is an important point to underline.

A second point is that, on balance of probability, it is likely that a higher number of landlords has been leaving the sector in recent years than is normal or desirable. When considering the evidence and anecdotal data from industry actors such as real estate agents and what homelessness organisations are reporting in the round, it is likely that the numbers leaving are currently higher than would normally be expected or higher than would be seen as consistent with a functional rental market, although we do not know.

Notwithstanding that, it should be noted that, from a supply point of view, there are two issues relevant to this question. From the supply point of view, the issue is net investment. It is not the number exiting but the difference between the number exiting and the number entering, which we do not know. In an ideal world, the property price register would collect data that would allow us to determine the exact level of landlord investment every year. I believe such information is collected through stamp duty filings. We currently do not have that information for the small-scale sector. We have a much better idea for the institutional landlord sector. That is all I wanted to say.