Ms Margaret McCormick:

In cases where we have to sell with a tenant in situ, that devalues the property significantly. The rental yield, generally, is low on a lot of the properties that are caught in this situation and the value to an investor is predicated on the property's income. There is no comparison between the commercial sector and the residential sector. The former comprises full repairing leases. None of the responsibilities are on the landlord for repair and maintenance of the property's standards, so it is a completely different market. If a landlord tries to sell with a tenant in situ, it will limit the options to investors, and the investor has to get an income from the property that makes financial sense, so it will substantially devalue it. Even the fear of that is leading to people leaving the market. We are looking at pensioners and people who rely on the income from their property as a pension. An annual income is much better than selling and getting a lump sum, and to stay in the market they need to get that annual income.

The entire market is dysfunctional and the legislation on it is constantly changing.

I counted this morning. Since 2009 there have been 88 statutory instruments on this legislation and there have been 21 changes in Acts. There is no confidence or stability in the market. The market is dysfunctional. It is constantly changing. There is nothing there to keep a member in the market. We need to keep property owners in the market. In a lot of cases people are saying to me that their tenants are going to move, because they know they are going to move on, and as soon as they do they will move out. Financially, it is not worth it and legislatively it is difficult, if not impossible. It is prescriptive and it is not outcome-focused. It is really awkward and continually changing. There is no mechanism to bring rents up that are substantially below market rate. There is no fairness in it. We can only take one month's deposit but it takes two months to serve a notice of termination for non-payment of rent. The legislation is flawed. It just does not work. It is not balanced in any way.

With regard to investment, in 2006 19% of mortgage lending, or €7.9 billion, was borrowed. In 2021, 1.4% or €143 million was being borrowed, down from €7.9 billion.