According to the last census, between 2016 and 2022, the number of over-65s renting from a private landlord increased by 83 per cent to almost 17,000 households. With landlords now permitted to reset rents to market rates on new leases every six years from March 2026, older tenants are a particularly vulnerable cohort of renters.
In 2023 the Residential Tenancies Board reported that nearly three-quarters of older renters (45+ years old) belong to skilled, semi-skilled and manual occupations. In 2021, renters over 65 were also likely to be spending more than 35 per cent of their disposable income on rent. Given rent inflation since then compared to increases in the likes of the State pension, this percentage is likely to be higher now, and when rents are allowed rise to the ‘market rate’, this will increase significantly.
Unsurprisingly then, according to Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) data , if home ownership continues to fall the poverty rate among over-65s will more than double from 14 to 31 per cent.
Given that Ireland’s welfare model needs people to be homeowners by retirement so they can then afford to live on a modest State or personal pension, the obvious question is: how are these renters aged over 65 going to pay their rent on retirement when their salary or income drops in many cases by 50 per cent or more? The median disposable income for a single over-65 household was €20,067 in 2024; the average rent for existing tenancies nationwide in 2024 was €17,280 annually (and €20,160 for new tenancies).
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What is most likely to happen is the rental payments of older tenants will be supplemented using the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), otherwise known as the taxpayer. Already over half a billion euro a year, the more rents rise, the greater the State’s HAP bill, with its use reducing supply in the private sector and driving up rents. The Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee recently said that HAP and its sister Rental Accommodation Scheme “do not provide the State [with] long-term assets and are not effective long-term solutions to social housing needs”.
No different from any other tenants, but far more vulnerable, a lack of security of tenure is much more serious for older renters more than half of whom also have long-term health issues. In Bantry, Co Cork earlier this summer an 88-year-old woman faced eviction from her home of six years. She did find alternative accommodation after her case was raised in the Dáil by Independent TD Michael Collins. Not many get that treatment, however.
Research by the housing charities ALONE and Threshold showed that the private rental sector is also unsuitable for older tenants because of a lack of choice, a lack of suitability of accommodation for their needs (made worse by poorly considered recent reduced design standards), a lack of affordability and the aforementioned lack of security. The combination of facing old age surviving on a reduced income with little certainty about how long you might be allowed to remain in your home is the embodiment of precarious living.
Although each local authority is required to prepare a Housing Need and Demand Assessment for their area to let them know the number and type of housing they will need for the next decade, there is no specific requirement to incorporate issues relating to ageing and tenure-specific concerns. There is nothing in the Programme for Government on housing and older person, aside from an outline of support for people to live in their own homes, which is commendable, but only potentially useful if you have your own home.
For those who do own their own home, there has been a relentless nudge campaign to suggest that many may be living in a house that is too big for their needs. This type of analysis sees houses as physical units and not as homes with spaces for pets, hobbies and even gardening, and their owners as pieces on a chessboard to be moved around, perhaps into a glorified shed in their back garden.
Taxation has been suggested as a method of encouraging owners of larger properties with few full-time occupants to move to smaller accommodation. But as the Conservatives found out with the introduction of Poll Tax in England in 1990, just because you own a big house doesn’t mean you are wealthy. Many a British older person was landed with a huge property tax bill based on the value of their house which had increased through no fault of their own, but with no assessment of their ability to pay it.
Moreover, who is anybody to tell an older person that their house is too big for their needs, likening their owners to that awful term bed blockers in hospital? Many houses occupied by older people might be quiet as a Buddhist temple during the week but busier than Dublin Airport at the weekend when children and grandchildren come to visit. Others do the State a favour by reaccommodating boomerang offspring who return to the nest when policy failure means they can’t afford to buy or rent anywhere themselves.
Downsizing is itself a rich person’s game. The lack of bridging finance to allow someone to fund the purchase of one property while simultaneously selling the current one means the seller must have the financial means to fund the new purchase up front. In addition, the smaller the gap between the value of the property being sold and the one being bought means older people are less likely to trade down. Interesting options are beginning to spring up like Cohousing Ireland’s housing for over 55s, but they are just starting and need the co-operation of banks.
Whether a homeowner or particularly a renter, older people all face increasing pressures: to move, to find somewhere to live, to afford to live, and ultimately to solve an ongoing housing crisis that is not of their making. Government is silent on the issue.
Dr Lorcan Sirr is senior lecturer in housing at the Technological University Dublin
