Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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121. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the role his Department has in discussions within Government on the possible roll-out of a mortgage to rent scheme on a large scale; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22647/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I published a Review of the Mortgage to Rent (MTR) Scheme on 8 February 2017 representing the completion of an early action in the Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness.  The review is available from the Rebuilding Ireland website at the following link: .

The recent amendments to the MTR scheme arising from the Review have meant that more borrowers in mortgage arrears have access to the scheme.  Similarly, there have been a number of improvements to the way in which the scheme is administered which mean that it is more straightforward and should take a shorter timeframe to complete.

In parallel, the Review concluded that the current financial model of the scheme, which relies on Approved Housing Bodies purchasing from lenders properties that have been voluntarily surrendered by eligible borrowers, may not be capable of delivering the scale of successful cases that could benefit from the scheme over time.  One of the outcomes of the Review is that in order to test the operability of alternative funding models for the scheme, the Housing Agency will work with a number of financial entities who have come forward with an interest in working with the MTR scheme to progress a number of pilot alternative lease arrangements.

In advance of these pilots, a targeted marketing exercise is currently underway by the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA), on behalf of my Department, to test the suitability of the proposed enhanced leasing arrangements to ascertain if they would be viable for a mortgage to rent cohort.  The objective is to explore what is available within the current market and to determine if this alternative model will benefit a greater number of households.

A call for Expressions of Interest from bodies interest in pursuing the pilot arrangements will shortly be undertaken by the Housing Agency on behalf of my Department.  Once concluded, the Agency will make recommendations to my Department.

In all scenarios, the focus is on meeting the long-term housing needs of the greatest number of households in unsustainable mortgage arrears.