The overwhelming majority of landlords solely personal one or two properties

The headlines from the CSO report on the rental sector appear to have skewered some of the sacred cows in the debate around housing in Ireland.

All too often commentary is presented in overly simplistic terms of fat-cat landlords versus wronged tenants. As the CSO report shows, the picture is much more nuanced.

First, despite all the noise in the market the vast majority of landlords (86 per cent) own only one or two properties. Most of them own one.

And half of all landlords earn less than €10,000 on these investments after allowable expenses – such as mortgage interest, depreciation on fittings and furniture, repair and maintenance costs and letting costs. The CSO suggests these expenses can account for roughly a third of gross rental income, which means these landlords are charging up to €1,250 a month.

If their gross income is enough to see them taxed at the higher rate the net annual income from their investment is €5,150 or less. If they’re lower rate taxpayers then it could be as high as €7,150. It’s certainly better than nothing, but this group is not buying yachts on the backs of their tenants.

For sure the 1.2 per cent of commercial landlords at the other end of the scale with net rental income of more than €100,000 account for upwards of 20 per cent of all properties but the data just show how landlords as a group are anything but homogenous.

Still, set against the value of the properties – the local property tax (LPT) return for almost 80 per cent of rental properties in Dublin is under €250,000 while, outside Dublin, half are valued below €100,00 and almost 80 per cent under €150,000 – rent yields in Ireland sound attractive.

However, the CSO data also show that close to half of all current rental properties were bought in the Celtic Tiger years before property values crashed. Those LPT valuations were set in 2013 at a time when many small landlords were struggling with large mortgages and negative equity. Set against purchase price, those yields are altogether skimpier. So much for stereotypes.