Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Both the Programme for Government and Housing for All commit to strengthening the Mortgage to Rent scheme and ensuring that it can help those who need it. The 2021 Review of the Mortgage to Rent Scheme was published on 24 January 2022.

Building on the significant changes already made to the scheme in 2017, the 2021 Review examined the impact of these changes and what further changes would benefit those in need of the scheme. While the scheme is performing well, it was assessed that some further enhancements were needed to enable more households in need of support with their long-term housing needs to avail of this scheme.

One key priority action was to broaden the eligibility criteria of the scheme and this was implemented in February 2022. These include changes to the positive equity and property acquisition limits and more flexibility on over-accommodation where a member of the household is aged 65 or over, or has a disability. More recently, the increase in the income threshold for social housing has also opened the MTR scheme to more borrowers because households entering MTR must qualify for social housing support. These changes have enabled borrowers to apply for the scheme, who wouldn't have been eligible previously.

An advertising campaign on urban and regional buses was conducted in Q4 2022 under the 'Communication and awareness raising' action and further initiatives to increase awareness of the scheme will be undertaken. There is continued engagement with Abhaile, the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) and Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) to disseminate information on the MTR scheme.

The table below sets out the number of completed Mortgage to Rent (MTR) cases from 2019 up to Q3 2023.

The Housing Agency publishes, on a quarterly basis, detailed statistical information on the operation of the MTR scheme including a breakdown of the number of cases by MTR provider. This information is available on the Housing Agency's website at the following link: www.housingagency.ie/housing-information/mortgage-rent-statistics.

The spend on Mortgage to Rent cases, broke down by quarter, is available at: assets.gov.ie/99984/d10e5f7c-a0f5-40ab-9ccf-0559e22f3afa.xlsx. My Department is currently compiling spend data for Q3 2023 and this information will be available in the coming weeks at this location.

My Department, in conjunction with the Housing Agency is currently running an Expressions of Interest (EOI) process which invited participants from both the private and Approved Housing Body (AHB) sector to put forward their interest in becoming MTR providers who can deliver the scheme at scale. This EOI process is necessary for the long-term sustainability of the scheme and will offer lenders more providers with whom they can engage and process cases with. The results of this process will be announced shortly.

Full details of the recommendations and associated actions are outlined within the 2021 Review of the Mortgage to Rent (MTR) scheme for people who have borrowed from commercial private lending institutions and this review is available on my Department's website: www.gov.ie/en/publication/ed57b-2021-review-of-the-mortgage-to-rent-scheme-for-borrowers-of-commercial-private-lending-institutions/

My Department is also represented on the newly established long-term mortgage arrears group, along with representatives from the Department of Justice, the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Finance and other stakeholders. The objective of this group is to examine the full suite of measures in place to reduce the number of people in long-term mortgage arrears and to recommend changes to increase the efficacy of these measures where necessary.