Changes to 'draconian measures' in Fair Deal Scheme could free up 8,000 homes for rent

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien said he is not considering the use of investment funds to build cost-rental homes for the time being. Picture: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

Changes to "draconian measures" in the Fair Deal Scheme could see 8,000 homes added to the rental stock, the Housing Minister has claimed.

Darragh O'Brien said he is working with Minister of State Mary Butler to free up the homes under the scheme which provides financial support for those in need of long-term nursing home care.

Mr O'Brien said that a removal of the block on sales of homes could see 500-550 homes freed up, while a further piece of legislation, which he hopes to publish before the summer, would amend the scheme and see 8,000 homes available to be rented out.

"Our research shows that in or around 8,000 to 9,000 homes remain vacant in parts of the country because families find them difficult to rent due to the criteria set down by the Fair Deal Scheme," he said.

At least we want to give families the option should they wish to rent them out, and there's a lot of advantages to that too.

"So I want that through before the summer."

Mr O'Brien, who was speaking at the launch of 43 homes for older people by Fold Housing in Rialto in Dublin, said he expects a vacant property tax to be brought in this year, but said that this process would require data from the Local Property Tax to be finalised.

Mr O'Brien also said he is not considering the use of investment funds to build cost-rental homes for the time being.

Speaking at the Oireachtas housing committee on Tuesday, Fine Gael senator John Cummins said investors would be needed to help deliver cost-rental houses at scale. He said that such a provision would be in line with European norms.

However, Mr O'Brien said that while he would like to see low-yield funds enter the market, his priority was the use of exchequer funding to allow approved housing bodies to deliver the homes.

"Our focus at the moment is the exchequer funding in the CREL loans through the approved housing bodies," he said. 

"They've already proven that they can deliver cost-rental at scale right now.

"It [the Affordable Housing Act] does permit ethical fund investment but that's not something I'm looking at in the short term."