Tenants in properties acquired by the State are yet to see reduced rents, 18 months into scheme
Sinn Féin spokesperson on housing Eoin Ó Broin said that these properties are not being purchased by AHBs for multiple reasons, including the high maintenance costs associated with them, as well as the houses being located too sparsely apart. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie
No rental properties acquired by the State have been transitioned to cost-rental properties since a new scheme was introduced by the Government over 18 months ago.
The latest data from the Housing Agency shows that despite the scheme being launched in April 2023, no tenants have been placed on rents below market rates.
According to the Housing Agency, as of August 31, a total of 91 properties have been acquired, but none of these have since been sold to approved housing bodies (AHBs).
The scheme itself was introduced as part of a series of measures following the removal of the no-fault eviction ban. It allows the Housing Agency to buy properties from private landlords who are seeking to sell, allowing the tenant to remain within the property.
The tenant pays the same rent as they paid under their previous landlord and the Housing Agency becomes the landlord. It is envisioned that the properties would then transition to a cost-rental model, meaning the rent payable is lower than market rates.
In a letter to Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin, the Housing Agency confirmed that rents being paid by tenants who have had properties purchased by them are still on their rent prior to purchase. The agency wrote:
This €70m fund was used to buy up vacant properties from banks and other financial institutions.
Mr Ó Broin said that these properties are not being purchased by AHBs for multiple reasons, including the high maintenance costs associated with them, as well as the houses being located too sparsely apart.
AHBs, which are not-for-profit housing associations, manage and provide social rented accommodation, with properties traditionally located within one central location like an apartment block or single estate.
However, with properties being bought by the Housing Agency in different locales, Mr Ó Broin said that this leads to AHBs not buying up houses under the scheme.
The Sinn Féin housing spokesperson called for a “total revamp” of the cost rental tenant in situ scheme.
He said that there needed to be better advertisement of the scheme itself, and that it should be expanded out to allow local authorities to purchase properties.
Mr Ó Broin added that the Housing Agency is not set up to operate as a landlord, saying that it would be limited in the number of properties it would be able to acquire.
However, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien pushed back, saying that as the scheme is now on a legislative footing, it will incentivise AHBs to buy up properties.
“I would expect AHBs will take these properties on now that the legislation has been signed into law,” Mr O’Brien told reporters.
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