Ireland rental market 2024: 39% of older tenants spend over 40% on rent
A Central Statistics Office profile of Ireland's rental sector finds 39% of tenants aged 65 or over paying more than 40% of disposable income in rent.
The facts
- The Central Statistics Office published "The Rental Sector in Ireland 2024" on 5 November 2026, a point-in-time profile built on tenancies registered with the Residential Tenancies Board.
- 39% of tenants aged 65 or over spent more than 40% of disposable income on rent.
- 27% of tenants had total gross income below 20,000 euro, and employee income was the main income source for 73% of them.
- Energy ratings split the stock: 67% of private rental properties were rated A, B or C, while 28% were rated D or E and 5% F or G.
- On the landlord side, 62% of individual landlords had total gross income below 60,000 euro, and 55% were aged 50 to 64.
- Dublin renters faced the highest median rent as a share of disposable income, although no figure for that is printed.
What it means for your money
- Rent you can collect is capped by what tenants earn. More than a quarter of Irish tenants are on under 20,000 euro gross.
- Glopra's Ireland figures put the national average asking rent at $35.45 per square metre a month, and that is the level this income profile has to support.
- For a landlord already holding Irish stock the energy split is the live cost line, because a third of private rentals sit at D or below, where retrofit spending lands.
What to watch
- The release prints no euro rent amount anywhere. Rent appears only as a share of disposable income, so it cannot be read as a rent level.
- The office warns the release may use methods still under development and sources that may be incomplete, and that its figures cannot be compared directly with measures from outside the office.
Sources: Central Statistics Office https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/fp/fp-trsi/therentalsectorinireland2024/