One-fifth of renters in Dublin are spending more than half their income on rent, according to new figures from the Residential Tenancies Board.

The latest Rental Sector Survey notes that half the country’s tenants are paying more than 30% of their take-home pay on housing.

The situation is tougher for tenants in Dublin with one-in-five people spending more than half their income on rent and 64% of people spending more than 30%.

The average Dublin tenant is paying 41% of their income on rent – compared to the national average of 36%.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Paddy Gray Professor of Housing at the University of Ulster said the high levels of rent prevent people from living an “ordinary decent life.”

The survey also predicts a change in the profile of Irish landlords with just over one-quarter of those with one or two properties planning to sell up with the next five years.

Meanwhile, landlords with 100 tenancies or more plan to expand their portfolios.

Landlords

Prof Gray said the number of properties available to rent has fallen by about 25,000 over the last five years.

“The number of tenancies has been contracting which suggests that landlords are leaving the market,” he said.

“Those with small portfolios of one to two, many of them bought during the Celtic Tiger so many of them are saying well it is time to exit.

“Either that is through the regulations or through basically the costs of keeping the property going or having tenancy issues or whatever but in the main, the number has been going down.”

Mortgage

One-fifth of the tenants interviewed said they were renting because they couldn’t get a mortgage.

Some 15% said they were saving for a deposit.

Surveys for the report, carried out by Amárach Research, included 1,038 face-to-face interviews with tenants and hundreds of telephone surveys with landlords.

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