The Long Term Leasing Initiative was introduced in 2009 to allow local authorities to enter into leases paying 80 per cent of market rates for 10-20 years as a means of meeting social housing needs.In 2018 a new 25-year “enhanced” leasing scheme was introduced, which saw the rents increased to 95 per cent of market rates with index-linked reviews every three years. The scheme has proved popular with pension and other investment funds due to the guaranteed long-term returns.
Dublin City Council has the largest number of 25-year leases with property owners, at 587. The council said just under a quarter of these had been agreed with “private individuals” but the remaining 447 were with “limited companies, Icav’s or investment/pension trusts”. The vast majority of the leases are for homes in Dublin 7 and Dublin 8, with 124 homes in the former and 118 in the latter.
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council said it had entered into “nine long-term leases with investment firms, which have delivered a total of 95 properties”. The leases are in “various location” but all are for 25 years.
Is there anything less ‘Irish’ than a big institution taking over, reducing people to poverty to just rent/work/exist in Ireland, never have an option to buy & own their own land and probably have to immigrate to secure their future? We became a ‘republic’ then gave it away.
Completely unsustainable costs.