Nearly a third of all calls to the housing charity Threshold last year were from tenants faced with losing their home.
The findings are included in the charity's annual report for 2017, which was published today.
The report found that 32% of all calls to Threshold in 2017 were from renters who had been told by their landlords that their tenancies were coming to an end – up 18% compared to 2016.
The charity warned that people in the private rental sector are becoming increasingly vulnerable.
Rent reviews, rent increases and tenancy terminations were behind the majority of calls to Threshold last year.
In a bid to limit rent increases, the charity has proposed the introduction of rent registers, which would allow tenants in rent pressure zones to compare the prices at which rental properties in their area have been let in the past.
It also wants to see an NCT-style system in place, to ensure that rental properties are fit to rent.
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Threshold chairperson Aideen Hayden said one in five families live in rented accommodation.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, she said people are being evicted into homelessness, with sales of properties being the biggest cause.
She said the sale of a property is not considered a valid reason for terminating a tenancy in many other European jurisdictions, such as The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Denmark.
Ms Hayden said Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy must address two key matters if the homelessness crisis is to be addressed - unaffordable rent increases and the sale of rented properties.
She said the charity dealt with one case last year where a tenant was forced into homelessness because the landlord told them they wanted to sell the house, but the property was later placed back on the rental market.
The case was challenged successfully.
So far this year, 209 cases were brought to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), with a third of these being challenges against notices of termination.
Meanwhile, the Director of the Residential Landlords Association has accused Threshold of giving a "very exaggerated picture".
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke, Fintan McNamara says the charity "hypes things up" and he worries that the charity sometimes "gets the wrong end of things".
He said that of 1,500 notices challenged at the RTB last year, just 142 of them related to situations where the landlord intended to sell.
Mr McNamara said the association was concerned at calls for the removal of clauses that allow landlords to evict a tenant, if they want to give the property to a family member.
Removing these clauses would, he said, mean that landlords would merely manage the property and no longer own it.
He also said that the sector was the "mostly highly regulated in western Europe" and there was no need to bring in any new regulations.
