Is buy-to-let still worth it in Dublin in 2026? The honest answer: yes for some people in some postcodes — and the gap between the two is bigger than ever. Since 1 March 2026 a national rent cap limits in-tenancy rent increases to the lower of CPI or 2% a year, which quietly rewrote the landlord business model: the days of buying a yield and “letting the market do the work” are over. What you earn on day one — the rent you can set on a new tenancy against what you pay for the property — is now close to what you will keep, because rental income growth is capped at 2%. That makes entry yield, area choice and the real cost stack the whole game. This guide runs the numbers: gross and net rental yields across Dublin’s districts, the full year-one cost stack on a real worked example, the 2026 landlord tax and compliance rules, where the auction bargains actually are, and when — and how — to get out. It is the dedicated buy-to-let pillar of our investment analysis series and the companion to our best-areas-to-buy guide’s investor ladder.
Executive summary: the buy-to-let maths under the 2% cap
Six numbers frame every decision in this guide (sources and dates in the sections below; all current to 5 September 2026):
- Dublin’s average gross yield is about 7.0% across dwelling types (Global Property Guide, Q2 2026) — high by European standards, and higher still in the north and west inner city.
- Rental growth is structurally capped at 2% a year in-tenancy (the lower of CPI or 2%, since 1 March 2026) — so underwrite on 2%, not on the 6–7% market-rent inflation of recent years.
- Net yields run two to three points below gross after mortgage interest, management, insurance, LPT, maintenance, voids and income tax of up to 52%. A headline 8.4% gross is a 3–4.5% net depending on your tax rate — before you pay the mortgage.
- Day-1 yield is your yield. Area choice decides it: gross yields run from ~5.0% in Dublin 6 to ~10.2% in Dublin 1 on the registered-rent basis (Dublish, March 2026).
- Landlords are selling, not buying. 62% of one Dublin agency’s 2025 sellers were investors offloading buy-to-lets, and individual landlord numbers fell from about 170,000 in 2016 to under 140,000 (agency data; Census 2022-based estimates). Fewer buyers at the table means better entry prices for those who stay.
- The tax and compliance bar is real. Interest relief requires an RTB-registered tenancy, pre-letting relief caps at €10,000, CGT is 33% on exit — and every figure is up for review at Budget 2027 on 6 October.
The one-line read: Dublin buy-to-let in 2026 is an income business with a growth kicker, not a get-rich rental-growth story. It works where the day-one rent is high relative to price — think Finglas, Ballyfermot, the north inner city — and it quietly fails in premium south-city postcodes where a 5% gross can become 2–3% net. Do the full year-one maths before you bid, and treat any guide that quotes only a gross yield with suspicion.
The 2% rent cap: a 60-second recap (and why it changes everything for landlords)
The old patchwork of Rent Pressure Zones was abolished on 28 February 2026. Since 1 March 2026, one national rule — the Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026 — applies everywhere: an in-tenancy rent increase is capped at the lower of CPI or 2% a year, once per 12-month period, on at least 90 days’ written notice, with a copy to the RTB on the same day or the notice is invalid. CPI was 3.4% in June 2026, so the 2% lid binds. The only ways rent resets to market are a genuine new tenancy or the end of each six-year cycle for tenancies created after 1 March 2026; qualifying new-build apartments follow CPI only. And the RTB Rent Register — public and updated daily since the same day — lets anyone benchmark what a property actually rents for, which is exactly what a buyer should do before bidding on an investment.
For a landlord the implications are blunt:
- A sitting tenant’s rent compounds at ~2% a year, not at market. On €1,715 a month that is €34.30 next year and €35 a year after — not the €100+ jumps of the pre-2026 era.
- The value of “good growth area” fell and the value of “good entry yield” rose. If income growth is capped, the income you set at the start of the tenancy is your income for years.
- New-tenancy pricing is where the yield is won. The market rent you can achieve when a property turns over is the main lever left — which is why tenant retention and low void periods now matter more than rent increases.
We walked through the full mechanics — including the 90-day notice, the same-day RTB copy and how to check a notice for validity — in our explainer of the new national 2% rent cap; if you are buying an investment with a tenant in situ, read that first.
Day-1 yield is your yield: why area choice matters more than ever
Under the old regime, a landlord could buy a modest-yield property in a rising-rent area and watch the rental income inflate toward the market over a few years. That compounding engine is now capped at 2% a year in-tenancy. The consequence is arithmetic: the gross yield you underwrite at purchase is essentially the gross yield you keep — so the purchase price and the market rent on day one do almost all of the work.
That is why this guide, like our best-areas-to-buy hub (which ranks the same districts for every buyer type), treats district choice as the first investment decision, not the last. The same €300,000 spent in Dublin 1, Dublin 11 or Dublin 6 produces meaningfully different rent — and different net cash flow — for the same landlord, same mortgage and same tax rate.
Two measurement caveats before the tables, because yield figures are only as good as their basis:
- Registered-rent basis vs asking-rent basis. The district figures below divide actual rents on the RTB Rent Register by Property Price Register sale prices (Dublish’s method, March 2026). They are the most honest district series available — but registered rents include tenancies signed years ago, so a freshly let upgraded property can gross more, sometimes much more, than the district number suggests.
- Gross is not net. Every table below is gross — before management, tax, maintenance, voids and mortgage. Net runs two to three points lower; the worked example in section 6 shows the bridge.
The gross-yield ladder: what each Dublin district actually rents for
Gross yields on the registered-rent basis (RTB Rent Register rents ÷ PPR sale prices; Dublish’s Dublin Rental Yields by Area 2026 series, March 2026). Medians and one-year growth are PPR-based district figures from the same source:
| District | Median price | 1-yr growth | Gross yield (registered-rent basis) | What the yield buys you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D1 North Inner City | €275,000 | +6.3% | ~10.2% | Dublin’s highest gross yield — apartments, turnover and management intensity included |
| D8 Kilmainham, Inchicore, Liberties | €305,000 | +7.4% | ~9.2% | Inner-city strength with a gentrification tailwind; apartment-heavy stock |
| D10 Ballyfermot | €226,000 | +9.9% | ~8.7% | Pure yield at Dublin’s cheapest entry price; budget for older-stock maintenance |
| D11 Finglas | €246,000 | +8.4% | ~8.4% | Yield plus near-double-digit growth; transport upgrades in the pipeline |
| D7 Cabra, Phibsborough, Stoneybatter | €330,000 | +7.5% | ~7.9% | The balanced pick: meaningful yield and 7.5% annual appreciation in one postcode — our full Dublin 7 guide digs into the intra-district spread |
| D12 Drimnagh & Crumlin | €324,000 | +8.4% | ~6.1% | Modest yield, strongest mid-market appreciation — a capital-growth play that rents (see the Dublin 12 guide) |
| D6 Ranelagh, Rathmines, Rathgar | €595,000 | +6.0% | ~5.0% | Premium southside: a capital-preservation play, not an income play |
Medians, growth and yields: PPR-based district series via Dublish, March 2026; yields on the registered-rent basis. Dublin’s average gross yield across all dwelling types was about 7.0% in Q2 2026 (Global Property Guide), with yields by type running about 8.0% for 1-beds, 7.6% for 2-beds, 6.9% for 3-beds and 5.5% for 4+-beds — apartments out-yield houses across the city.
What the ladder says: the yield map of Dublin has a clear axis. The north and west inner city and the affordable west (D1, D8, D10, D11) are where rent relative to price is highest; the premium southside (D6 and, off this table, D4 and Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown at 5.0–5.6%) is priced for capital growth that a leveraged landlord may barely see after costs. D7 and D12 sit in the middle — the buy-both bets. One agency’s 2025 data captures the market’s mood: investors were just 12% of its buyers (its lowest share ever) while 62% of its sellers were investors exiting — the yield ladder’s best entries are increasingly being sold, not chased.
The cost stack: what actually happens to the rent
Every euro of that gross yield meets the same cost stack before it reaches your bank account. Model every line:
| Cost | Typical range | Notes for 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage interest | The single biggest line — see the worked example | On a 70% LTV loan, interest alone can consume a third to 40% of the rent in year one. Interest is deductible against rental income — only while the tenancy is RTB-registered. |
| Income tax on rental profit | Up to 52% marginal | Income tax plus USC and PRSI on your profit (rent minus allowable expenses), at your marginal rate — 20%, 40%, or the top 52% band. Rental losses are ring-fenced: they offset rental income, not your salary. |
| Management fees | 7–10% of rent | The standard Dublin letting-agent range; self-management saves the fee and costs you the time. |
| Insurance + Local Property Tax | ~€1,200–€1,800 a year on a mid-market house | Landlord/building insurance is deductible; LPT on a rental is a personal charge and is not deductible against rental income. |
| Maintenance | 1–2% of value a year | On a €246,000 older house that is €2,500–€4,900 a year. Older D10/D11/D12 stock runs to the top of the range; a fresh BER/retrofit is a separate capital item. |
| Voids | Budget 2–4 weeks a year between tenancies | Lost rent plus the re-letting costs (advertising, referencing, cleaning). Under the 2% cap, tenant retention is the cheapest rent increase you will ever get. |
| One-off purchase costs | ~€7,000–€12,000+ on a mid-market buy | Stamp duty 1% up to €1m (2% above), solicitor €950–€2,500 + VAT, survey, plus the 30% deposit itself. |
Two structural facts make the cost stack worse than it looks in year one. First, mortgage interest is front-loaded: on a repayment mortgage the early years are almost all interest, which is why interest-only buy-to-let mortgages are common in Ireland — and why the “repayment” version quietly starves your cash flow for a decade. Second, tax is charged on profit, not cash: you pay income tax on rent minus allowable expenses, so any cost that is not deductible (capital improvements, LPT, your own labour) still attracts tax on top of itself.
Worked example: the €246,000 Finglas house (the reality of an 8.4% headline)
Dublin 11 Finglas is the district where the yield ladder and the FTB/priced-out story overlap: median price €246,000, growth 8.4%, and a typical three-bed house letting at about €1,715 a month on the registered-rent basis (Dublish, March 2026) — an 8.4% gross yield. It is the single most-quoted Dublin yield example of 2026, and it deserves a full autopsy. (Author calculations; rounded; tax at the marginal rate after allowable deductions, no mortgage in the first table.)
Step 1 — gross to net, before any mortgage:
| Line | Year-one amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Gross rent (€1,715 × 12) | €20,580 | 8.4% of €246,000 |
| Management @ 8% | −€1,650 | letting agent |
| Insurance + LPT | −€1,500 | ~1,200–1,800 mid-range |
| Maintenance @ ~1.5% of value | −€3,700 | 1–2% band is €2,500–€4,900 |
| Pre-tax net cash | €13,750 | 5.6% of price before tax |
| Income tax @ 20% / 40% / 52% | −€2,750 / −€5,500 / −€7,150 | on the ~€13,750 taxable profit |
| After-tax net (no mortgage) | €11,000 / €8,250 / €6,600 | 4.5% / 3.4% / 2.7% of price |
The “4–5% net” figure you see quoted is real — but it is the standard-rate taxpayer’s number. At the higher 40% rate the same house nets about 3.4%, and a top-bracket (52%) landlord about 2.7%, before a cent of mortgage interest. That spread is why “net yield” without a tax rate attached is meaningless.
Step 2 — add the mortgage. Buy-to-let lending is capped at 70% loan-to-value, so the Finglas house needs a €73,800 deposit (30%) on a €172,200 loan. Interest-only at ~4.5% costs €7,750 a year (€645 a month) — about 38% of the rent. Interest is deductible, so:
| Landlord marginal rate | 20% | 40% | 52% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taxable profit after interest (€13,750 − €7,750) | €6,000 | €6,000 | €6,000 |
| Tax | −€1,200 | −€2,400 | −€3,100 |
| Cash left after all costs and tax | ~€4,800 | ~€3,600 | ~€2,900 |
| Cash-on-cash return on the €73,800 deposit | ~6.5% | ~4.9% | ~3.9% |
(Author calculations at 4.5% interest-only; rates vary by lender, LTV and stress test, and rents/expenses are rounded. If the mortgage were at 5% and you were a 40% taxpayer, cash-on-cash drops toward 4%.)
What the example actually proves: even in Dublin’s fourth-best yield district, the leveraged landlord’s income return on cash is roughly 4–6.5% — comparable to a decent diversified portfolio, with much less liquidity. The case for Finglas-type buy-to-let in 2026 therefore rests on the second line of the ladder table: +8.4% annual price growth on top of the income. If you do not believe the capital-growth number, do not buy the yield — because the yield alone, after tax and interest, is not a compelling risk-adjusted return. And remember the cap: that €1,715 rent can rise only ~€34 a month in year two, whether or not the market jumps.
Landlord tax in 2026: what changed, what didn’t, and what to re-check at Budget 2027
Tax is where buy-to-let reality checks usually go wrong, so this section sticks to the rules as they stand (Revenue guidance, current to early September 2026) and flags what Budget 2027 (6 October 2026) could move.
Mortgage interest — the “restriction” scare, decoded. Every few months a post circulates claiming Irish landlords can now deduct only a fraction of their mortgage interest, usually citing “Section 24”. That rule is British — Finance Act 2015 s.24 restricted UK finance-cost relief to the basic rate — and it does not apply in Ireland. Irish law still treats mortgage interest on a let property as an ordinary trading deduction against rental income (Revenue — expenses allowed on rental income). The real restrictions in 2026 are these:
- RTB registration is the gateway. Interest relief is claimable only while the tenancy is registered with the Residential Tenancies Board — no registration, no relief, and the common Revenue query when a claim is refused.
- Purpose and timing. The loan must be used to purchase, improve or repair the let property, and the interest must relate to a period when the property was let or genuinely available for letting. Interest paid while a property sits empty before its first let, or between tenants without marketing, is generally not deductible (Revenue Tax and Duty Manual Part 04-08-06).
- Interest only. Capital repayments are never deductible — only the interest element.
- Ring-fencing. Rental losses can be set against rental income of the same or future years, not against PAYE salary or other income.
Pre-letting expenses — the real €10,000 relief. Ordinary expenses incurred before a property is first let are not deductible — with one significant exception. Since 1 January 2023, section 97A TCA allows a deduction of up to €10,000 per premises for qualifying expenses (repairs, insurance, professional fees and the like) incurred in getting a vacant residential premises ready for its first let after a period of non-occupancy, and the Finance Act 2024 extended the relief to expenditure incurred before 31 December 2027 (Revenue TDM Part 04-08-11). Two catches worth knowing: the relief is clawed back if the property ceases to be let as a residential premises within four years of that first letting, and it does not convert capital improvements into revenue deductions — structural work still goes into your CGT base cost for when you sell.
Wear and tear — alive at 12.5%, and never what you hoped. The capital-allowance rumour mill periodically declares the wear-and-tear allowance dead. As of Revenue’s current guidance it is very much alive: furniture, fittings and appliances in a furnished let qualify for wear-and-tear allowances of 12.5% of cost per year for eight years (Revenue — capital allowances). What does not exist — and never has — is depreciation on the building itself: Irish landlords get no annual allowance on the structure, which surprises every investor arriving from systems where property depreciation is a routine deduction. Budget 2027 is the moment to watch: landlord reliefs are squarely in the frame this autumn, and the pre-letting relief sunsets at the end of 2027 unless renewed — re-verify every figure here before you file, and take professional advice before you commit capital.
The 52% ceiling and the filing basics. Rental profit is taxed at your marginal income-tax rate — 20% or 40% — plus USC and PRSI, for a top combined rate of 52% on income above the higher band. Rental income is declared on a Form 11 under self-assessment (filing and paying by 31 October each year for the prior tax year), and all allowable expenses must be evidenced. If you let from abroad, a separate non-resident-landlord regime applies — an Irish collection agent can be appointed to avoid 20% withholding on rent — so take advice before you emigrate and keep the let.
Landlord compliance in 2026: the checklist that keeps you legal (and keeps your tax relief)
The 2026 regime rewards landlords who treat compliance as a system, not an annual scramble. The checklist:
- Register the tenancy with the RTB within one month of it starting, and re-register each year on the anniversary (registration is online at rtb.ie). Late registration adds a per-month late fee; penalties for non-registration run to €4,000 on criminal conviction or a €15,000 civil sanction per tenancy. Fees have changed several times, so confirm the current amount on rtb.ie before paying.
- Register every tenancy separately — each property (and each tenancy within a multi-let building) carries its own registration and renewal date.
- Keep the Rent Register on your side. Since 1 March 2026 the RTB Rent Register is public and updated daily — the same data Dublish and every yield table in this guide are built on. Check the registered rent on any property you are buying with a tenant in situ: it tells you the lawful starting rent, the remaining review cycle and whether the vendor has been registering honestly.
- Rent reviews: once a year, capped, 90 days, same-day copy. Raise rent at most once per 12 months, by the lower of CPI or 2%, on 90 days’ written notice with a copy filed to the RTB the same day — a missed same-day copy invalidates the increase. Then update the tenancy registration with the new rent within a month.
- New tenancy? Set the market rent, register within a month, and be ready for the 2% world. A fresh tenancy can be priced at market — that is where your day-one yield is set — but from the moment it is signed, the 2% cap applies to every future review on that tenancy.
- Documents and records. Tenancy agreement, RTB registration numbers, rent-receipt history, BER cert, and full expense receipts per property — Revenue and the RTB both expect a paper trail, and your accountant needs it every October.
The landlord-responsibilities picture in 2026 is therefore less about new obligations than about linking ones: RTB registration is simultaneously a legal duty, the gateway to mortgage-interest relief, and the thing the Rent Register exposes if you skip it. Our rent-cap explainer walks through the tenant-side rules in full; the same 90-day/same-day discipline is your compliance backbone as a landlord.
Buying at a discount: auctions, receiver sales and bank-repo stock
The landlord exodus has a silver lining for buyers who can move fast: a meaningful share of Dublin’s investment stock now changes hands through auction and receiver sales, where the marketing is thinner, the competition is smaller and the prices can lag private-treaty equivalents. The three channels to watch:
- Wilsons Auctions — the largest independent auction company in the UK and Ireland, holding property auctions through its Dublin branch (wilsonsauctions.com). Its catalogues regularly include receiver-sale and lender-instructed residential lots across Dublin, sold in room and online.
- BidX1 — the pan-European online auction platform, heavy in Irish receiver and fund stock (bidx1.com/en/ireland). Auctions run over set windows with a guide price, and Dublin lots — including tenanted investment apartments in D1/D8-style locations — appear weekly.
- MyHome Auctions — the auctions section of MyHome.ie aggregates lots from multiple auctioneers (BidX1 among them) in one searchable feed (myhome.ie auction listings), which makes it the easiest place to scan what is coming to the hammer.
How the game works — and the traps. Irish property auctions typically require a 10% deposit on the fall of the hammer (paid immediately), completion within roughly 21–28 days, and no cooling-off period — your bid is a binding contract. Guide prices/AMVs are marketing, not valuations; the reserve can sit above them. And critically for investors: buying a tenanted lot means buying the tenancy — verify the RTB registration, the lawful rent, the review history, the deposit and the tenant’s rights before you bid, because the 2% cap and the six-year review cycle come with the keys. Receiver sales are frequently “as-is, where-is”: budget a full survey before auction day (there is no time after), read the legal pack, and price in condition, BER and any arrears. Done properly, auction stock is one of the few places left where a Dublin investor can buy below a bidding war — done casually, it is how people buy someone else’s problem.
Portfolio strategy: spread, mix and leverage in a 2% world
If you are building a portfolio rather than buying a single house, the cap changes portfolio design too. Four disciplines:
- Geographic spread across the yield ladder. A portfolio that is all D1 apartments carries one risk profile; all Finglas houses carries another; all D6 carries a third. The defensible 2026 structure blends yield districts (D1/D8/D10/D11), balanced growth-plus-rent districts (D7/D12) and only as much premium capital-growth stock (D6/D4/DLR) as you can carry on 2–3% net yields. Because in-tenancy growth is now capped, yield districts earn their keep from day one while growth districts earn it at exit — the mix should reflect when you need the money.
- Property-type mix. Apartments out-yield houses (about 8.0% vs 6.9% gross for a 3-bed, Global Property Guide Q2 2026) but carry management companies, service charges and higher turnover; houses carry lower yield and higher maintenance, but stronger growth and an easier eventual sale to owner-occupiers — who are 88% of one Dublin agency’s buyer pool and still the deepest market at exit.
- Leverage discipline. Central Bank rules cap buy-to-let lending at 70% loan-to-value (a 30% deposit), with no loan-to-income limit — which sounds generous and is a trap: lenders stress-test at higher rates and typically want the rent to cover the monthly payment with a margin. Run the worked-example maths at 4.5% and 5.5% before you commit, and keep an interest-rate buffer. Interest-only keeps cash flow alive in year one; repayment builds equity you only realise at exit. The 2026 infographic on the Central Bank’s own mortgage-measures page is the reference for the LTV/LTI regime.
- Reserves and the exodus window. Model 2–4 weeks of voids a year and €5,000+ of cash per property for emergencies — a vacant, unregistered, unmortgageable property is the classic small-landlord failure mode. And use the market’s mood: with investors at 12% of one agency’s buyers (9.5% of purchases nationally) and 62% of its sellers being exiting landlords, the patient cash buyer has negotiating power that 2021–22 never offered. Competition is thin at exactly the moment stock is thick — that is the whole window.
Exit strategy: CGT, PPR and the “7-year rule” that isn’t one
Buy-to-let decisions should be made with the exit already priced. The exit tax in Ireland is Capital Gains Tax at 33% on your chargeable gain — sale price minus purchase price, minus buying and selling costs and any enhancement expenditure you incurred, minus your annual €1,270 personal exemption (Citizens Information — CGT). The gain is taxed in the year of disposal: pay by 15 December (31 January for December disposals) and file a return by 31 October the following year — even if no tax is due. Keep every improvement receipt: a €20,000 extension adds €20,000 to your base cost and saves €6,600 of CGT at the 33% rate.
If the property was ever your home, Principal Private Residence relief changes the picture (Revenue — PPR relief). A house you lived in for your entire ownership sells CGT-free. Once you let it, relief is time-apportioned: Revenue’s own example is a home lived in for 10 years, let for the last 4 of a 14-year ownership and then sold — the owner claimed exemption for the 10 occupied years plus the final 12 months of ownership, leaving 11/14 of the gain exempt and 3/14 taxable. The pattern to internalise: every year a former home is let adds a taxable slice — except the last 12 months of ownership, which always count as occupation (the “moved out but not yet sold” cushion).
And the “7-year rule”? You will read — usually in UK-sourced content — that renting out your former home for up to seven years keeps the PPR exemption intact. That is not what the Irish legislation says. There is no seven-year letting grace period in Irish CGT: the exemption is time-apportioned from the moment the property stops being your home (with the 12-month final-period rule as the only automatic cushion, plus specific absence rules for work abroad or health). The honest planning consequence runs the other way: the longer you let a former home, the larger the taxable share of the gain — so either sell within the protected window, or deliberately hold it as a long-term rental and accept the CGT as the cost of the income. And if your exit question is really “are prices about to drop?”, that is a market-timing question, not a tax one — our year-end Dublin property market review and 2027 outlook, which takes the crash-vs-cooling question head-on — read it before you time a sale.
Frequently asked questions
1. Is buy-to-let still worth it in Dublin in 2026?
Only with honest maths. Dublin gross yields average about 7.0% — higher in the north/west inner city — but net yields run two to three points lower after management, maintenance, voids and income tax of up to 52%, and the 2% rent cap limits in-tenancy growth. On our Finglas worked example, an 8.4% gross becomes roughly 3.4% net for a 40% taxpayer before mortgage costs, and about 4–6.5% cash-on-cash once the mortgage is added — plus 8.4% annual price growth in that district. If you do not believe the growth number, the yield alone rarely justifies the risk.
2. What rental yield can I expect in Dublin in 2026?
About 7.0% gross on average (Global Property Guide, Q2 2026). By district on the registered-rent basis (Dublish, March 2026): D1 ~10.2%, D8 ~9.2%, D10 ~8.7%, D11 ~8.4%, D7 ~7.9%, D12 ~6.1%, D6 ~5.0%. Asking-rent-based estimates run materially lower (roughly 4.5–6%), so always check which basis a figure uses — and subtract two to three points for the net number.
3. How much tax does a landlord pay on rental income in Ireland?
Rental profit is taxed at your marginal income-tax rate — 20% or 40% — plus USC and PRSI, up to a top combined rate of 52%. You deduct allowable expenses first (mortgage interest on an RTB-registered tenancy, management, insurance, repairs, wear and tear at 12.5% over eight years). Losses are ring-fenced to rental income. Declare via Form 11 by 31 October each year.
4. What are the buy-to-let mortgage rules in Ireland?
Central Bank measures cap buy-to-let lending at 70% loan-to-value — a 30% deposit — with no loan-to-income limit. Lenders stress-test at higher rates and typically want the rent to cover the mortgage payment with a margin; interest-only terms are commonly available on investment properties. Non-resident and second-property lending is often stricter (60% LTV is not unusual).
5. Can a landlord raise rent more than 2% in 2026?
Not on a sitting tenancy. In-tenancy increases are capped at the lower of CPI or 2% a year (CPI was 3.4% in June 2026, so 2% binds), once per 12 months, on 90 days’ notice with a same-day RTB copy. A genuine new tenancy can be set at market rent, and qualifying new-build apartments follow CPI only.
6. How do I avoid capital gains tax when selling a rental?
CGT is 33% on the gain after costs, the €1,270 annual exemption and enhancement expenditure. If the property was ever your home, PPR relief exempts the occupied period plus the final 12 months of ownership, with the gain time-apportioned — so a former home sold quickly after you move out carries a smaller tax slice than one let for a decade. There is no seven-year letting rule in Irish CGT. Timing a sale around market conditions is separate — see our year-end price analysis when it publishes.
7. Are auction and receiver-sale properties a good buy-to-let source?
They can be — Wilsons, BidX1 and MyHome Auctions all list receiver and lender-instructed Dublin stock, often below private-treaty competition. The conditions: 10% deposit at the fall of the hammer, completion in roughly 21–28 days, no cooling-off, and as-is condition. If the lot is tenanted, verify the RTB registration, lawful rent and review history before bidding — the tenancy and the 2% cap come with the keys.
8. Is the “landlord exodus” real, and should it scare me off?
The numbers are real: 62% of one Dublin agency’s 2025 sellers were investors, its rental transactions fell 27%, and individual landlord numbers dropped from about 170,000 in 2016 to under 140,000. For an entrant, that is two-sided: it signals a tough regulatory and tax environment, and it also means fewer competing buyers and more stock — including auction stock — at a moment when tenant demand remains structurally strong. Buy with the 2%-cap maths done, and the exodus becomes your entry discount rather than your warning.
Bottom line
Buy-to-let in Dublin in 2026 is a different business from the one that minted the phrase. The 2% national rent cap has turned rental-income growth off, so the yield you buy on day one is the yield you keep — which pushes every decision upstream: buy where the market rent on a new tenancy is high relative to price (D1, D8, D10, D11), stack the full cost sheet including tax at your real marginal rate, and treat capital growth as the return that makes the whole thing work, not a bonus. The Finglas example is the honest template: an 8.4% headline, roughly 3–4.5% net before the mortgage for most landlords, about 4–6.5% cash-on-cash with leverage — and 8.4% annual appreciation on top if the growth thesis holds. Compliance is now cheap and unforgiving (register within a month, review once a year at 2%, 90 days, same-day RTB copy), tax reliefs carry real conditions, and Budget 2027 on 6 October could move several of the numbers above — so verify before you file. Done with discipline, Dublin buy-to-let still works. Done on a headline gross yield, it is how portfolios quietly die. Run the full maths, buy the day-one yield, and let the growth do its slow work.
Get the free Dublin by the Numbers 2026 PDF — every district’s median, growth and yield in one expandable table, built from the same PPR and RTB data used here.
Run your own numbers with our buy-to-let calculator — deposit, interest rate, management, maintenance and your tax rate, with the year-one cash-on-cash answer in seconds.
Book a free 15-minute investor consultation — tell us your budget and target yield, and we will shortlist the two or three districts (and the auction lots) worth your weekend.
See today’s Dublin investment listings on Daft.ie or the MyHome.ie auctions feed.
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