This publication is part of a series of results from Census 2022. More thematic publications will be published throughout 2023 as outlined in the Census 2022 Publication Schedule.
The trend in home ownership and renting between 2016 and 2022 was similar to the trend between 2011 to 2016. Home ownership rates fell as the total number of households living in rental accommodation increased to over half a million.
The proportion of owner occupied dwellings was 66% in 2022, down from 68% in 2016.
The number of dwellings owned with a mortgage or loan fell by 1% to 531,207. In contrast, between 2011 and 2016, the decrease in this category was 8%.
Overall, the number of dwellings owned without a mortgage or loan was up 11% to nearly 680,000.
The total number of occupied rental properties in the 2022 census was 513,704 up from 469,671 in 2016. This includes properties rented from a private landlord (330,632), local authority (153,192) or voluntary/co-operative housing body (29,880).
In the 2016 to 2022 period, the number of occupied dwellings rented from a private landlord increased by 7% to over 330,000.
Similar to the 2011 to 2016 period, every county saw a rise in the number of dwellings owned outright in the six years to Census 2022.
The counties with the largest drops in the number of properties owned with a mortgage or loan were Donegal (down 10%) and Tipperary (down 8%).
There were increases in the number of mortgaged properties in and around Dublin; the largest were in Meath (up 9%) and Kildare (up 6%).
In Fingal, the number of dwellings owned outright increased by 21% and in Kildare by 18%.
In both Carlow and Waterford, the number of properties rented from a private landlord went up by 15%. There were also increases of over 10% in rental properties in the north-west of the country.
The number of private rental properties fell in Meath, Kilkenny, Kildare, Wicklow and Laois.
When looking at tenure by age group in 2022, private rental accommodation was more prevalent among younger households. However, compared with the previous census, significant increases were recorded in the number of dwellings rented by households headed by a person aged 60 years or over.
There were over 20% fewer households owned with a mortgage or loan where the head of the household was aged between 30 and 39 years.
Where the householder was aged over 65, the number of dwellings owned outright was up 17%.
This same age group, 65 years and over, saw an increase of 83% in the number of properties rented from a private landlord to nearly 17,000.
For households headed by a person aged 60 to 64 years, this was up 69% since 2016.
The rates of owner occupancy varied by the age of the head of the household, increasing from 11% for those aged 20 to nearly 90% among householders aged over 85.
Census 2022 shows that by the age of 36, more than half of householders owned their home (with or without a mortgage or loan).
This age, which marks the changeover between home ownership and renting, has been increasing over time from 26 years in 1991, 27 years in 2002, 28 years in 2006, 32 years in 2011 and 35 years in 2016.
In 2022, by the age of 44, two-thirds of householders owned their homes (with or without a loan) which was slightly later in life than in 2016 when this same proportion was recorded for householders aged 41.
In 1991, the age at which two-thirds of householders owned their homes (with or without a loan) was 28 years.
The age at which the majority of householders owned their dwelling outright stood at 59 years in 2022, up from 56 years in 1991.
The average rent in dwellings rented from a private landlord increased to €273 per week in Census 2022, up 37% from €200 per week in 2016. Between the 2011 and 2016 censuses, the average weekly rent was up by 17% from €171 in 2011.
The highest average rents were all in Dublin, ranging from €349 per week in South Dublin to €442 per week in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.
Outside of Dublin, Cork City (€297 per week) and Galway City (€292 per week) had the highest average rent.
The lowest average weekly rents were in Donegal at €134 and Leitrim at €137.
Between 2016 and 2022, rent rose fastest in Longford, up 51% to €152 per week, followed by Louth (€233 per week), Westmeath (€197 per week) and Clare (€188 per week), all up 47%.
Nationally, there were over 52,000 households paying a weekly rent of €400 or more to private landlords compared with just 13,232 households in 2016.
In Dublin City, almost 23,000 households paid this amount of weekly rent, up from 6,775 in 2016.
In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, the number of households paying €400 or over per week more than tripled to almost 10,000.
Up from 754 in 2016, over 6,000 households in Fingal were paying €400 or more in weekly rent in Census 2022.
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