Two hundred new cost-rental and social homes to be delivered in south Dublin by Respond

Construction has started on 200 social and cost-rental apartments in Sandyford in what will be one of the largest mixed tenure developments built in South Dublin in years.

Housing body Respond is developing Lisieux Hall, a complex of 133 social apartments, as well as 67 cost-rental apartments with rents set at an average of 35 per cent below current market rates.

The cost-rental apartments include three studios, with rents set at €1,137.50 a month, 28 one-bedroom apartments priced at €1,312.50 a month, 31 two-bedroom apartments at €1,485 each, and five three-bedroom apartments for rent at €1,530.

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. Currently households must have a net income of no more than €53,000 annually. However, the Government is understood to be considering an increase of this limit to €75,000-€80,000.

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Respond’s cost-rental homes were key to addressing “the challenges of affordability and security of tenure faced by many renters in the current market”, Respond spokeswoman Niamh Randall said.

“Pursuing larger developments like Lisieux Hall enables us to deliver cost-rental homes at scale, efficiently and effectively as possible. We are very much looking forward to handing over the keys to the people and families who will live here and make it a community.”

Lisieux Hall would be the largest mixed tenure housing development in Respond’s portfolio to date, she said.

“The focus of Respond’s €1.5 billion home building programme is on adding to the national housing stock. We are increasingly doing this with larger developments, as we work to help alleviate the massive need nationwide for social and cost-rental housing and supporting the Government’s Housing for All strategy.”

The development was “ideally placed close to amenities, public transport routes, and local commercial centres, and would provide secure accommodation at affordable prices to 200 hundred families”, she said.

The apartments are scheduled for delivery between the start of next year and 2025. The 133 social apartments will be allocated to people from the Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council housing waiting list upon completion, while a lottery system is likely for eligible cost-rental applicants.