Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is, as the Deputy said, a very big problem. It is driving homelessness in some cases. What is happening is traditional landlords who might have one or two properties are leaving the market. For every one that comes in, two leave. This is a big problem. The reasons why that is happening may not be all that comfortable for us to absorb fully. What are they saying? They are saying huge numbers of new regulations in recent years are making it very hard to be a small landlord, the 2% cap on rent increases is making it hard to continue, particularly when interest rates are likely to go up over the next couple of years, and that the very high burden of taxation is an issue too. These are things we have to be honest and upfront about and develop solutions to so that we can reverse this trend of landlords leaving the market and people losing their homes as a result.

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