By Ted Healy of DNG TED HEALY

Property owner groups are pushing for a new tax rate of 25 percent for landlords to discourage them from selling up and leaving the market.

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Currently, landlords are paying over 50 percent tax on their rental income and the Government are looking at the possibility of reducing this in the upcoming Budget.

The Irish Property Owners Association (IPOA) and the Institute of Property Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV) have called on TDs and senators in the Oireachtas Housing Committee to back a new tax rate of 25 percent.

This will incentivise landlords to stay in the rental market and “support new investment”, according to chairperson of the IPOA Mary Conway.

“The private investor is taxed at a marginal rate of up to 55 percent whilst the private equity fund/REIT pays zero percent tax on rental profit, once they exit the market within a defined period.”

Private non-developer landlords provide 94 percent of rental accommodation in the State with 70 percent of these landlords owning five properties or less.

Inheritance tax also plays a role in encouraging landlords to leave the rental market due to their age.

“75 percent of landlords are above the age of 50 and 48 percent are above the age of 60. This is important to note as taxation issues around inheritance are another contributor to landlords leaving the market.”

Meanwhile, Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien has said he wants to see measures in the Budget to help "good landlords" and keep property owners from quitting the private rental market.

Since 2016, there has been a loss of up to 8,000 landlords, representing around 44,000 tenancies, from the sector.

Mr O'Brien said landlords have been "demonised" and must be kept in the market while the State increases its stock of public housing. He said a record 25,000 social houses will be delivered this year.

The murmurings are that measures will be taken in the upcoming Budget that will help to maintain as many of those private tenancies as possible whilst building up the public housing stock, the mechanism remains to be seen.