{"id":440632,"date":"2026-04-17T22:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/440632\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T22:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:28:13","slug":"dublin-cost-rental-scheme-dropped-over-rising-costs-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/440632\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin cost-rental scheme dropped over rising costs \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State\u2019s cost-rental programme has been dealt a blow following the decision of one of the largest non-profit housing bodies to scrap a Dublin<\/a> cost-rental project because it had become financially \u201cunviable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Housing<\/a> association Cl\u00faid<\/a> is building 144 homes on a Dublin City Council<\/a> site at Bannow Road in Cabra, close to Broombridge station. The majority are designated for social housing<\/a>, with 40 to be used for a cost-rental<\/a> scheme to provide homes for workers who earn too much to qualify for social housing but cannot afford private market rents. <\/p>\n

The council said it has been informed by Cl\u00faid it \u201ccan no longer deliver 40 cost-rental homes at Bannow Road\u201d as \u201cthe cost-rental element of the scheme is unviable\u201d due to rising costs. Instead Cl\u00faid intends to submit an application to the Department of Housing<\/a> for funding to change the development to a 100 per cent social housing complex.<\/p>\n

Under the cost-rental system, operating since 2021, rents are based on the cost of building, managing and maintaining the properties. The terms of the State-subsidised scheme require rents to be at least 25 per below market values for the area. Applicants must have an after-tax income under \u20ac66,000 in Dublin and \u20ac59,000 outside the capital, but the monthly rent should not be more than 35 per cent of their net income. <\/p>\n

The system has operated successfully where the cost-rental developers, usually non-profit housing bodies, are able to provide the homes at low enough rents so that workers with earnings under the maximum threshold can afford the rent without paying more than a third of their net incomes monthly.<\/p>\n

However, in areas such as Dublin city and D\u00fan Laoghaire<\/a> where the development cost, or \u201cbuilding, managing and maintaining\u201d the properties, is highest it has been a struggle for housing organisations to provide the homes within the scheme\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n

Cl\u00faid, which delivered the State\u2019s first cost-rental housing scheme in Balbriggan in Fingal, north Dublin, in 2021, said at the Bannow Road development it was the future maintenance costs that have pushed the cost-rental element beyond viability.<\/p>\n

\u201cRising costs in areas such as planned maintenance, cyclical costs and component replacement mean that it would not be possible to deliver these as cost-rental homes with rents 25 per cent below market rate,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0More than 1,300 applications received for 56 cost-rental homes in DublinOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It said it remained committed to providing cost-rental homes \u201cacross Ireland\u201d but proposed developments would be assessed \u201con a case-by-case basis to ensure the funding available to us will be sufficient to cover buying and maintaining the property and providing an excellent resident experience\u201d. <\/p>\n

It said it was \u201cconfident\u201d the department would support the change from cost-rental to social housing at the Bannow Road site.<\/p>\n

The department did not respond to queries on Friday. Cost-rental is one of the key elements of the Government\u2019s housing programme, particularly in Dublin, with a target more than 4,000 cost-rental homes in the capital up to 2030.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the department said it was committed to cost rental and where viability issues arise \u201cworks with providers to reassess financial models and potentially vary the funding arrangements\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, he said: \u201cNot every cost-rental project can be made viable under all circumstances. In the case of the development at Bannow Road, it is understood that Cl\u00faid is proposing they become social housing, and the department will consider this application when received.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State\u2019s cost-rental programme has been dealt a blow following the decision of one of the largest non-profit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,169207,8753,52,784,20688,18,13,14,6,8752,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,4097,19142,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-440632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-cluid-housing","11":"tag-department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage","12":"tag-dublin","13":"tag-dublin-city-council","14":"tag-dun-laoghaire","15":"tag-eire","16":"tag-featured-news","17":"tag-featurednews","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-housing-crisis","20":"tag-ie","21":"tag-ireland","22":"tag-latest-news","23":"tag-latestnews","24":"tag-main-news","25":"tag-mainnews","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-renting","28":"tag-social-housing","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116422410727873046","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}