Almost 1,000 apply for Land Development Agency cost-rental homes

Almost 1,000 households have applied to become tenants of cost-rental homes in Dublin and Wicklow advertised by the Land Development Agency (LDA) just one week ago.

In advance of a midnight deadline on Monday more than 540 applications had been lodged for the 22 three-and four-bed houses at Citywest in South Dublin and about 430 applications for 24 duplex apartments in Delgany, near Greystones in north Wicklow.

Demand for both schemes was expected to be strong with rents about 57 per cent below market rates in Citywest and about 30 per cent below the market in Delgany. 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.

Rents in Parklands at 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. 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.

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The LDA is building 95 cost-rental homes at the Parklands development, which will be available in phases over the next 16 months. The 540 applicants who do not secure any of the first 22 houses will remain on file for future phases of the scheme.

At Archers Wood, 124 cost-rental homes are being provided, 24 of which are already occupied. Applications for this development 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.

As the demand for the homes vastly exceeds supply, all eligible applicants will be put into a lottery and those chosen will then have to supply backup documentation such as payslips, bank statements and references.

Applicants must have a net household income below €53,000, 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 and be able to afford to pay the rent, which cannot amount to more than 35 per cent of the household’s net income. Only one application per household can be made for a specific cost-rental property.

About three-quarters of the homes to be delivered by the LDA are expected to be cost rental. The Parklands development is being built by a joint venture between Harcourt Developments and the National Asset Management Agency, while the developer of Archers Wood is Cairn Homes.