Eviction notices increased by a fifth last year, with 20,033 tenants told to leave their homes, new data from the national rental oversight body shows.
The Residential Tenancies Board’s (RTB’s) director, Rosemary Steen, said the organisation had been receiving notification of about 4,000 notices of termination every three months, but this increased last year.
There were 5,405 such notices issued in the third quarter of last year and 5,207 in the final three months.
Steen said eviction notices, though rising, represent a “small figure” in the overall context of the rental market, which grew last year by 2.5 per cent.
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While the RTB has not released any formal data for 2026, Steen said there has been “high activity” in the rental sector so far this year.
A major overhaul of the State’s private rental rules came into force at the beginning of this month, affecting all new tenancies. The new regime introduced six-year tenancy durations, after which rents can be reset to market rates. It also restricted “no-fault” evictions and generally capped annual rent increases at 2 per cent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.
Any tenancies initiated before March 1st remain under the old rent pressure zone system, which also restricts rent rises by 2 per cent or inflation, although there are exceptions to this.
Steen said she does not expect the rule changes to lead to the board reporting a “dramatic” shift in the number of tenancy registrations when it releases data for early 2026.
“A small cohort of the small landlord group have decided they wish to exit [the market]. I don’t see anything in terms of the overall register that would cause me concern,” she said.
Presenting the data at a press event on Thursday, Brian Gallwey, senior research and policy manager with the RTP, said lets managed by State-approved not-for-profit housing bodies increased their coverage by 10.7 per cent to 55,914 units, while student rental accommodation grew by 8.7 per cent to 39,705 rental.
Private rentals rose by 1.1 per cent to 243,598, which is the highest number recorded since the RTB began tracking the sector in early 2023. Gallwey noted private tenancies provided by large landlords with 100 or more tenancies increased for the 10th consecutive quarter, while the share of the market covered by small landlords has declined during this time.
“The sector is changing,” he said, adding that a rise in private landlord tenancies can be attributed in part to new large landlord stock coming on stream in Dublin.
The RTB’s rent price index for the third quarter of last year shows the average rent for new tenancies rose nationally by 5.4 per cent over the previous 12 months to reach €1,776. Existing tenancy rates rose at a lower rate of 4.6 per cent to an average of €1,494.
[ Government was advised that rent reforms carried ‘significant’ risk of evictionsOpens in new window ]
Rent pressure zones were expanded last June to cover the entire State.
The RTB’s deputy director, Louise Loughlin, noted there are exceptions to the rental caps, such as if a landlord carries out works to the property. She said the rules can be “complex” and some landlords genuinely make errors when resetting rents.
However, Steen said, wrongly setting rents inappropriately is “really serious” and the RTB “will pursue people who do it”.
