Dublin cost-rental homes available for applications from today

Huge numbers of renters are expected to apply today for the first Dublin cost-rental homes available under the Land Development Agency’s (LDA) Project Tosaigh scheme, with rents almost 60 per cent below market rates.

Applications for the houses at Parklands, Citywest, will open at noon, three weeks before the ban on no-fault evictions comes to an end. The second tranche of LDA cost-rental homes in Delgany, Co Wicklow, will also open for applications at noon.

Rents in Citywest start at €1,350 a month for a three-bed house, €1,450 for a four-bed, two-storey house, and €1,460 for a four-bed, three-storey house – all typically about 57 per cent below market rents, according to the agency.

At Archers Wood in Delgany, rent for a two-bed duplex has been set at €1,455 a month and €1,550 for a three-bed. These rents are about 30 per cent below market rents in the area, the LDA said.

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The LDA is building a total of 95 cost-rental homes at the Parklands development, but just 22 will be available to applicants tomorrow, with the remaining homes released in phases over the next 16 months. In Delgany 24 homes will be available tomorrow out of a total of 142. The first cost-rental homes at Archers Wood were advertised last November, with tenants already occupying 24 homes.

The opening of applications for the cost-rental homes in Dublin and Wicklow comes as the Government is considering widening the eligibility for cost rental schemes to households earning more than €100,000, or a net income of €75,000 to €80,000, in an attempt to stem the rental crisis.

However, prospective tenants submitting applications must meet the existing eligibility criteria of a net household income of €53,000. In addition, applicants cannot be in receipt of any social housing supports, including rent supplement or housing assistance payment (HAP) and must not own a property.

An applicant’s household size must match the size of the property advertised and all members of the household must be living in Ireland at the time of applying. Applicants must be able to demonstrate they can afford to pay the rent, which must not amount to more than 35 per cent of the household’s net income. Only one application can be made for a specific cost rental property.

With figures published last Friday by the Residential Tenancies Board showing 4,741 notices of termination were served in the third quarter last year, the majority of which will come into force following the lifting of the ban on evictions on March 31st, both schemes are likely to be significantly over-subscribed.

Eligible applicants who apply through lda.ie will be chosen by lottery. However, if they are unsuccessful their application for Citywest will remain on file for future phases of the scheme. In Delgany, applications are being taken on a phase-by-phase basis, with the next tranche of homes – 95 apartments including 37 one-beds (€1,220 a month), 52 two-beds (€1,445 a month) and four three-beds (€1,530 a month) – due to be advertised in the coming weeks.

Under the cost-rental system, rents are based on the cost of building, managing and maintaining the homes, and not market rates. Tenants also have long-term security, with leases running to several years available. The scheme is aimed at workers who earn too much to qualify for social housing supports but who cannot afford to buy or rent on the open market.

About three-quarters of the homes to be delivered by LDA are expected to be cost rental. The agency has a target of delivering at least 5,000 cost rental, affordable purchase and social homes under project Tosaigh, a scheme in which the LDA steps in to buy housing where developers have planning permission, but construction has either not commenced or stalled. The builder developing the Parklands scheme is Harcourt Developments, while Cairn Homes is behind Archers Wood.