Hey Denis Walker,
in 2019 until the end of december the last /22 allocation was assigned to the members/Lirs, once the ripe stopped assigning /22, there was not that much interest in 2020 for only a /24 subnet. And no, it was not free! Since in 2021 the price per IP skyrocketed, and ripe announced that they are out of stock, due because of this and due because the price per IP is going to the moon, the LIRs (mostly big boys) with multiple allocations started to apply for more and believe me they are making a good profit from this. For now is 200€/month is the price for /24 subnet to rent out, and it will be higher and higher.