Some 400 people have applied to become tenants of cost-rental homes in Dublin and Wicklow in just 24 hours since the Land Development Agency’s (LDA) housing schemes were advertised.
Applications for the 22 three- and four-bed houses at Citywest, with rents about 57 per cent below market rates, and 24 duplex apartments in Delgany, about 30 per cent below market rents, opened at noon on Monday on lda.ie.
Prospective tenants have until a minute to midnight next Monday to register their interest for either scheme. All eligible applicants will then be put into a lottery and those chosen will have to supply backup documentation such as payslips, bank statements and references.
Rents at Parklands, Citywest start at €1,350 a month for a three-bed house, €1,450 for a four-bed, two-storey house, and €1,460 for a four-bed, three-storey house. At Archers Wood in Delgany, rent for a two-bed duplex has been set at €1,455 a month and €1,550 for a three-bed.
The LDA is building a total of 95 cost-rental homes at the Parklands development, which will be available in phases over the next 16 months. This week’s applicants who do not secure any of the first 22 houses will remain on file for future phases of the scheme.
At Archers Wood, 124 cost-rental homes are being provided, 24 of which, advertised last November, are already occupied. Applications for this development are being taken on a phase-by-phase basis, with the next tranche of homes – 95 apartments including 37 one-beds (€1,220 a month), 52 two-beds (€1,445 a month) and four three-beds (€1,530 a month) – due to be advertised in the coming weeks.
Applicants must have a net household income below €53,000, cannot be in receipt of any social housing supports, including rent supplement or housing assistance payment (HAP) and must not own a property.
An applicant’s household size must match the size of the property advertised and guidance on permissible household make-up is listed on the LDA application form. All members of the household must be living in Ireland at the time of applying and must be able to afford to pay the rent, which cannot amount to more than 35 per cent of the household’s net income. Only one application per household can be made for a specific cost-rental property.
The two schemes will close before the ban on no-fault evictions is due to come to an end on March 31st.
