What is Cost Rental?

Cost Rental is a new housing tenure that was created under the Affordable Housing Act 2021. It offers a long-term, secure rental option that will contribute to the development of a sustainable housing market in Ireland which provides choice across all tenures. The rent on these units is based on the cost of building, managing, and maintaining the homes.

Am I eligible?

You may apply/register your interest on The LDA website and follow the instructions. This is the only method by which to apply/register your interest. Applications cannot be made by post, email or over the phone.

*Terms and conditions for cost rental housing in Ireland are set out in the Affordable Housing Act 2021.

In order to be considered for Cost Rental Housing we will require each applicant to clearly outline how they have reached the Household Net Income calculation with supporting documentation . Affordability is a key criteria and is measured as rent being no more than 35% of your Net Income.

To be eligible for consideration for Cost Rental Housing, you must meet the following criteria:

Your net household income is below €66,000 per annum for Dublin and €59,000 for elsewhere in the country. Applicants will have to prove how they have calculated their net household income.
You are not in receipt of any social housing supports (including Rent Supplement or HAP).
You do not own a property in Ireland or elsewhere.
Applicants must be permanent residents and tax domicile in Ireland.
Your household size matches the size of the property advertised (All members of the household must be living in Ireland at time of applying).
You can afford to pay the cost rent for the home. Please see FAQs below for further information.
Your household has only entered one application for a specific cost rental property.

How do I apply?

You must first register your interest in one property type and indicate your eligibility, by providing the information requested on the form. Affordability is an important factor and is measured as rent being no more than 35% of your Net Income, this is one of the core eligibility criteria for the scheme and these will be used to initially stream applicants into the lottery process.

Applicants selected at random via lottery

Applicants successful in the lottery will be asked to document their Net Income calculation as part of the information required to move to the next phase. Affordability is based on the rent being no more than 35% of your Net Income. Applicants will also be requested to upload all the required supporting documents, as evidence that they are eligible for Cost Rental Housing and will have 72 hours to complete this process after which time the offer will be revoked and the property offered to the next person drawn from the lottery.

If we have insufficient expressions of interest from applicants who meet the affordability criteria we may open a lottery for applicants in excess of this figure. However they will be asked to provide details of their rent history for the previous two years (that they have paid a similar or higher rent) and to demonstrate they have not defaulted on rent in order to assess their ability to pay a higher percentage of Net Income as rent.