I actually think the biggest losers will be low income tenants who need long term tenancies (can't afford to buy and too much income for social housing). No landlord, especially a large one will rent to one. Think about it from the large landlord's perspective
1. It is a life long tenancy. They can never be evicted for sale etc. So the landlord can only sell to another landlord which is very unlikely.
2. So it is an investment based purely on yield. The landlord will be depending on inflation not being above 2% pa for each 6 year cycle and that market rents will increase every 6 years. This is far from guaranteed. Even if there is a big increase, the tenant may not be able to afford to pay it and the RTB would be sympathetic. AIB shares would be a safer bet if you were looking for yield alone.
3. The landlord has to pay for maintenance and repairs which will become more expensive as the property gets older. BER upgrades may also be required. The rent can't be increased to take this into account and it is likely that over time, as an older property, the market rent will actually decrease.
Smaller landlords would be very wary too.
It looks like the government has just knocked a large cohort of people completely out of the rental market????