Promoting a "well-developed" rental market as an alternative to home ownership could help reduce the effects of shocks to housing markets, according to Central Bank of Ireland deputy governor Stefan Gerlach.

"Deep rental markets thus appear to promote the resilience of the economy to adverse shocks and are therefore desirable from an economic stability perspective," he said, at the 21st Dubrovnik Economic Conference.

Gerlach identified three important factors in determining whether renting is an