Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said recently that it is “indisputable” that we have seen a reduction of around 40,000 rental properties in the private rental sector.
In Budget 2024 this week, we saw the biggest change to the USC in years, with the 4.5% rate cut to 4%. We spoke to Barra Roantree, assistant professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin about the history of the USC, the importance of it and why economists like it so much?
If non-registration is indeed a key part of explaining the discrepancy between the CSO and RTB figures, it may suggest that in recent years we have witnessed not so much landlords fleeing the sector, as landlords fleeing regulation.