Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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194. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the latest figures from the Residential Tenancies Board or elsewhere on the estimated number of tenants in the private rental market in rent arrears; and if he will provide absolute numbers and figures as a percentage of the overall market. [38538/16]

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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195. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the latest figures that his Department has for the landlord sector, including the number of properties it estimates are owned by smaller landlords who have one, two or three registered properties; the number owned by larger landlords who have more than three registered rental properties; and the number owned by very large institutional investors, such as real estate investment trusts, REITs. [38539/16]

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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198. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of landlords, tenants and tenancies registered in each of the years from 2000 to 2016 to date in tabular form. [38564/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 194, 195 and 198 together.

The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 regulates the landlord-tenant relationship in the private rented residential sector and sets out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) was established as an independent statutory body under the Act to operate a national tenancy registration system and to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants. I have no function in relation to the operational matters of the Board.

The Act provides that landlords in the sector must apply to register the tenancy of a dwelling with the RTB within one month of the commencement of the tenancy. There are currently over 325,500 tenancies registered with the RTB, comprising over 174,500 landlords and over 516,500 tenants. Details of the numbers of tenancies registered each year are provided in the RTB Annual Reports available at

.

A study by DKM economic consultants commissioned by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) and published in 2014, reported that the majority (65%) of landlords own just one property, a further 17% have two properties, 9% own three properties and 10% own more than three properties. The results of Census 2016, when available, will assist in providing an updated overview of housing tenure in Ireland, including the rented sector.

In relation to the numbers of properties owned by individual landlords registered with the RTB, my Department does not hold or collate the information requested. The Clerk of the Dáil has requested that arrangements be put in place to facilitate the provision of information by State Bodies to members of the Oireachtas. Following the issue of Circular LG (P) 05/16 on 20 September from my Department, the RTB have set up a dedicated email address for this purpose at .

In 2015, the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) received 4,023 applications for dispute resolution and a total of 1,260 (32%) of these related to rent arrears or rent arrears and over-holding. This was the most common issue in dispute in 2015, followed by Invalid Notice of Termination at 23% and Deposit Retention at 22%.