Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 29 November 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Recent Trends in the Private Rental Sector: Residential Tenancies Board

Ms Caren Gallagher:

I will speak about the methodology we employ for the RTB rent index. We produce it in conjunction with the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI. It is important to note that the RTB rent index is unique in that it is based on rents paid. We run the methodology every quarter. It is a time series based on 1.6 million records. It is also important to note that it is includes new tenancies on existing properties, new tenancies in properties that have not been let in the past two years and properties let for the first time. Detailed information about the methodology is provided in the detailed technical appendix. I agree with Mr. Dunne that I would not compare it with other rental reports as they are based on entirely different sets of data. The unique insight we can provide is that our report is based on actual rents paid in the sector.