Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The cost rental equity loan funds approved housing body, AHB, development of cost-rental homes through low-interest loans over 40 years for up to 30% of delivery costs. We have had two calls for proposals to date, with a major focus on delivery in 2022. We set parameters specifying that proposals submitted must see homes being tenanted this year. There was one application from Dublin City Council, DCC, that did not meet that criterion. We expect it to come in again. To explain what we will be doing in this regard, I will be opening the call to all local authorities and it will refer to post-2022. I will open the call this year and it will look to development in 2023 and 2024. I expect that DCC is working on some proposals in that context as well.

Overall, 911 homes have been approved for funding, with the first 65 occupied by tenants last year. The current pipeline for delivery this year is nearly 700 units, and that will increase. The most recent vacancies have just been advertised by the Tuath AHB, in Parklands in Citywest. It is a development of 44 two-bedroom apartments, with rents ranging from €1,200 to €1,300 per month, which is way below the market rent sought in the private sector. CREL properties have so far been delivered as turnkeys due to my determination to respond in the short term. That is why I set this criterion for near-term delivery. As I mentioned to Deputy Ó Broin earlier, however, I am providing more flexibility in the open call to allow all local authorities, including DCC, to make new proposals and this will result in a better pipeline.

Specifically concerning DCC, we had one proposal for the second call, but that did not meet the criterion for delivery this year. We do have other examples in Dublin, to which I will return in my supplementary response.

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