Clúid Housing opens applications for 56 new cost rental homes in Kildare

The 56 new homes are a mix of two-, and three-bedroom terraced and semi-detached homes. The cost rental homes are located in Barnhall Meadows, Leixlip Co. Kildare. Under the Government’s Cost Rental Scheme, rents are targeted at a minimum of 25% below open market values with prices for the Barnhall Meadows, Leixlip homes starting at €900 per month – around 45% below local market rates. Applications officially open on the Clúid website today, with the first properties available to move into before the end of the year. When complete, homebuilder Glenveagh will have delivered a total of 450 homes in the Barnhall Meadows development.

€70m
Cost rental is a new form of tenure in Ireland where residents pay rents that are solely based on the cost to build, manage, and maintain the homes. In Budget 2022, €70m has been allocated to develop 700 Cost Rental homes to be delivered by AHBs through the Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) mechanism. A target to deliver an average of 2000 cost rental homes per year has been included in the recently published ‘Housing for All’ a new housing plan for Ireland. Under the Affordable Housing Act 2021, the Cost Rental Scheme will enable Clúid to set rents for this development at the below monthly rates:

• 2 bed house – €900 per calendar month
• 3 bed house – €1,250 per calendar month

Today’s announcement follows on from Clúid’s recent cost rental launch, the State’s first, in Taylor Hill, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin. These 25 cost rental homes received over 1000 applications and are now occupied. Clúid also recently announced plans to deliver 73 cost rental homes in Cork in 2022.

Eligibility
The Leixlip homes are conveniently located close to social, educational, commercial, transport and recreational amenities. The A rated energy efficient properties are semi-furnished with white goods and flooring supplied. Applications open today, 20th of October and close on Tuesday the 26th of October. To apply for the cost rental homes, applicants are obliged to provide evidence of the following eligibility criteria:

• Net household income is below €53,000 per annum
• Not in receipt of any social housing supports
• Do not own a property
• Household size matches the size of the property advertised
• Applicants can afford to pay the cost rent for the home
• Household has only entered one application for a specific cost rental property

Should more applications be received than properties available, completed applications will be selected at random. The random selection system is automated and auditable to ensure a fair application process for all.

Financing of up to €100m
One of three AHBs selected (along with Respond and Tuath), Clúid was chosen to deliver the first cost rental homes as part of a competitive assessment process. The Cost Rental Scheme is administered by the Housing Agency, on behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The Housing Agency will oversee the administration of the loan arrangements including the drafting of the agreement for the Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) to fund the purchase of each property. The Housing Finance Agency (HFA) has also made financing of up to €100m available to support the delivery of cost rental homes. These 56 new homes are being purchased by Clúid Housing from homebuilder Glenveagh.

Darragh O’Brien TD, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, said: “Cost rental is an exciting new form of tenure in Ireland. I am really glad there are individuals and families already in situ in Cost Rental homes, availing of rents which are well below the open market rate. I want to see Cost Rental significantly scaled up and that’s why Government have committed to providing 18,000 Cost Rental homes between now and the end of 2030 as part of ‘Housing for All’. We are committed to helping people on moderate incomes to access affordable, secure tenancies in homes that suit their needs. Cost rents are based solely on the cost of delivering, managing, and maintaining the homes themselves and importantly they are long term secure tenancies. I want to commend Clúid Housing for their work in bringing this project to fruition,” he concluded.

Kath Cottier, Clúid Housing’s Director of Housing Services, commented: “Clúid’s vision is ‘a society where everyone has a great place to live’. To achieve our vision, we work in partnership with a range of stakeholders to deliver good quality housing and services across Ireland. We are extremely proud to have been selected to deliver the State’s first cost rental homes in partnership with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Housing Agency, the Housing Finance Agency, Kildare County Council and Glenveagh.

Cost rental homes provide working people, who do not already own property, access to right sized homes at a rent they can afford. With rents an average of 44% below market rates, these new homes here in Barnhall Meadows, Leixlip offer excellent quality, long term secure rental options for middle income households and those struggling to rent on the open market. The security of tenure and affordable rent offered here will support the creation of a more sustainable community and change how we think about long term rental options in Ireland.

We welcome the commitment from Government to build 2,000 cost rental homes per year and 18,000 by 2030 under the targets set out in Housing for All.”

Bob Jordan, Chief Executive Officer of The Housing Agency, said: “The Housing Agency has been working closely with Clúid Housing on the Cost Rental Scheme since its initiation, and we are pleased to see such important progress being made in providing homes. The Cost Rental model provides affordable, long term security to tenants, allowing them to put down roots in their communities. We look forward to the delivery of the remaining cost rental homes that were approved by the Minister earlier this year.”

CEO of The Housing Finance Agency (HFA), Barry O’Leary said: “The HFA is delighted to support Clúid Housing to deliver these new cost rental homes. The HFA provides long term, fixed rate finance that enables approved housing bodies, such as Clúid, to deliver much needed homes at a considerable reduction to market rates. We look forward to further collaboration with AHBs in the delivery of both Cost Rental and Affordable Purchase homes”.

Sonya Kavanagh, Interim Chief Executive of Kildare County Council commented: “The Council very much welcomes this new Government initiative to support approved housing bodies to deliver cost rental homes. It is exciting to see the delivery of 56 new homes in North Kildare; the first cost rental units to be delivered in the county. I am confident that this will be the start of the delivery of much needed affordable homes in the county.”

Stephen Garvey, CEO of Glenveagh said: “Glenveagh is delighted to support Clúid’s extremely valuable work and to continue growing our partnership with them. Today’s announcement, coupled with the success of our existing cost-rental partnership at Taylor Hill in Balbriggan, shows the potential for rolling out this model more widely and helping more people to rent high-quality homes at affordable levels.

Cost-rental offers an effective way to help meet the strong demand that exists for affordable rental homes, and we welcome the Government’s commitment to a further 18,000 cost-rental units in its Housing For All strategy.

Building sustainable communities that have a mix of tenures is at the core of our ethos. We are constantly looking for opportunities to provide more cost-rental homes and we look forward to working with a wide range of partners and stakeholders to achieve this.”

For more, visit cluid.ie/cost-rental/

ENDS

Notes to the Editor:
Communications Manager – Clúid Housing
+353 87 113 5411

About Clúid Housing
Established in 1994, Clúid Housing is an independent, not-for-profit charity. Clúid is one of the largest approved housing bodies (AHBs) in Ireland with over 8,700 social and cost rental properties in management. Clúid leads the way in delivering affordable housing solutions to those on local authority housing lists and to middle income households. Our team of over 260 professional employees are committed to providing quality housing and services that enable people to create homes and thriving communities. For more information visit www.cluid.ie