Clúid scraps 40 Cabra cost-rental homes, seeks 100% social housing

Clúid, a housing association, has scrapped a cost-rental project at Bannow Road in Cabra, Dublin, deeming it financially "unviable." The project, on a Dublin City Council site, was to include 40 cost-rental homes within a larger development of 144 homes, the majority designated for social housing.

Clúid informed the council it can no longer deliver the 40 cost-rental homes due to rising costs, particularly future maintenance costs. They intend to apply to the Department of Housing to change the development to 100 percent social housing. Clúid delivered the State’s first cost-rental housing scheme in Balbriggan in 2021.

Under the cost-rental system, operating since 2021, rents are based on the cost of building, managing and maintaining properties, and must be at least 25 percent below market values. Applicants must have an after-tax income under €66,000 in Dublin and €59,000 outside the capital, with rent not exceeding 35 percent of their net income.

The Department of Housing stated it is committed to cost rental and will consider Clúid's application. The department said it "works with providers to reassess financial models and potentially vary the funding arrangements" when viability issues arise. The Government's housing programme targets more than 4,000 cost-rental homes in Dublin up to 2030.