Central banks’ efforts to safeguard financial stability have increased inequality in the housing market, research from the European Central Bank shows.

In a blogpost, authors Juan Castellanos, Andrew Hannon and Gonzalo Paz-Pardo show that Ireland’s 2015 mortgage reforms did not lead to any meaningfully change in house prices in the country. Four years after the authorities there introduced a minimum loan-to-income ratio of 3.5 times and a down payment requirement of 20%, rents had increased by 4%