Just four tenant purchase applications completed this year

To date in 2023, just four tenant purchase applications have been completed with two in the final stages of completion. 

Properties excluded from sale under the tenant purchase scheme include units added to the council stock since 2015 through build and acquisition and one and two bed units subject to periodic review.

This was the response that Cllr Mary Bohan got when she asked about the current position regarding the Tenant Purchase Scheme.

Cllr Bohan asked if that was a "small amount or the usual amount of tenant purchase applications" and also queried what the "main stumbling blocks were regarding the scheme?"

Mary Quinn, Director of Services, Housing, Corporate Services, Community and Cultural Services responded that "sometimes access to finance may be an issue but generally, that's the numbers that are going through each year."

Cllr Bohan said that she heard of a case, which she could not confirm, "where someone is paying the rent but they are not living in the house and it's a local authority house."

However, Ms Quinn assured members that the council have secured abandoned properties over the last couple of years and "have taken a more focused and proactive approach; there is a process we have to go through but if it's brought to our attention, we investigate them."

In response to a query from Cllr Felim Gurn, Ms Quinn said that abandoned rural houses may go more easily under the radar than their urban counterparts. 

Cllr Padraig Fallon praised the tenant purchase scheme as an option for "many young families".