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Cost Rental homes
From Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Published on
Last updated on
Cost Rental is a new form of rental tenure designed to assist a cohort of renters who face significant affordability challenges meeting high rents in the private sector.
Under the Cost Rental model, rents for homes are set to cover only the cost of financing, building, managing and maintaining the homes. State subventions can be used in order to reduce the initial capital cost and make this starting cost rent more affordable. Cost Rental provides tenants with secure tenancies in sustainable, long-term homes.
You may be eligible for a Cost Rental home if:
• your net household income is below €66,000 per year if applying for a tenancy in one of the four Dublin Local Authority areas and below €59,000 per year if applying for a tenancy anywhere else in Ireland
• you are not in receipt of any social housing supports (Rent Supplement or Housing Assistance Payment)
• your household size matches the size of the property advertised
• the landlord determines that you can afford to pay the cost rent for the home
• your household has only entered one application for a specific cost rental property
As schemes become available, prospective tenants can apply through an Approved Housing Body, local authority, or the Land Development Agency, depending on who is administering the scheme. Applications will be taken for each scheme on an individual basis.
Homes will be advertised as and when they become available in line with set Government Regulations on the websites of the Approved Housing Bodies, Local Authorities or the Land Development Agency. Successful applicants, who meet the set eligibility criteria, will be chosen by way of a lottery.
Cost Rental is a new category of private tenancy that has additional protections for the tenant above and beyond traditional private tenancies.
Initial rents for Cost Rental tenancies are set based on the calculations of the costs of providing the homes over 40 years. This includes an assumption for inflation of both rents and the ongoing costs of managing and maintaining the properties. This gradual increase in rents not only ensures that rents remain constant in real terms over the long-term (likely below the rate of inflation of rents in the private market), but also ensures that the initial rent charged to the tenant is as low as possible.
Cost Rental tenancies offer secure, long-term accommodation to tenants. Once the tenant has lived in a Cost Rental dwelling for 6 months, the landlord can only terminate their tenancy under very limited grounds. These do not include the landlord selling the property, a family member wishing to live there, or its refurbishment or renovation. All Cost Rental tenancies must be registered with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).
Cost Rental Equity Loan scheme (CREL)
The Cost Rental Equity Loan scheme supports the delivery of Cost Rental homes by Approved Housing Bodies by covering up to 55% of the capital costs of a development, through a combination of loan and State equity investment (up to a max. 20% of capital costs).
Affordable Housing Fund Local Authority Cost Rental (AHF)
Local Authorities can apply for Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) grant funding of up to €150,000 per unit to cover the cost of delivering Cost Rental homes.
Cost Rental Tenant in Situ (CRTiS) scheme
The Cost Rental Tenant In-Situ scheme was introduced for tenants in private rental homes who are at risk of homelessness because a landlord intends to sell the property, but who are not in receipt of social housing supports and have net household income of no more than €66,000 in Dublin and €59,000 elsewhere. Local Authorities refer those at risk to homelessness to the Housing Agency, which may acquire these homes with tenants in place using designated capital funding. This scheme has been established on a temporary administrative basis from 1 April 2023, pending further policy development over the longer term, with the intention of transitioning these tenants and homes to the standard Cost Rental model.
Secure Tenancy Affordable Rental investment scheme (STAR)
The Government has agreed to commit up to €750 million for a limited time, in order to deliver circa 4,000 Cost Rental units under the new STAR investment scheme, which opened for applications on 1 August 2023. The scheme provides funding up to a maximum of €175,000 per unit in Dublin and €150,000 per unit in the rest of Ireland, with an additional €25,000 available for meeting sustainability criteria.