As the government courts more international money for Ireland’s rental sector, tenants say they want more transparency around who they are renting from.
Dublin City Council would sell the site to developer Glenveagh, which would agree to build 853 homes there, which would all be social and affordable, say officials. But what does affordable mean?
It examined deals done between 2016 and 2019 and found that councils generally got a good deal, but that there wasn’t a rigorous, standardised process.
They rezoned the site from industrial to residential for an affordable housing proposal. Now, the land’s more valuable and the landowner is looking to sell it.
The appearance of the building and surrounding site are bringing down the area, some councillors say. A representative of the owners says they’ve tried to maintain it.
Instead of reducing rents to tempt more students, they’ve been going to the council and getting permission to use it for short-term lets and co-living.
But the homes would still be built by a private developer, instead of by Dublin City Council, as councillors had wanted when they rejected the last plan for the site.
“We chose to buy this site to try to create affordable housing for normal people,” wrote the developer in a letter to a local councillor in September 2017.
