No properties were available to rent within a welfare scheme in areas outside Dublin or Kildare in June, according to a housing charity\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n
The Simon Communities of Ireland also found that just 20 properties were available to rent under Housing Assistance Payment scheme limits in 16 areas they surveyed in June.<\/p>\n
The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is a social housing payment made to landlords by local authorities, where tenants pay a contribution to their local authority.<\/p>\n
To avail of HAP, the landlord\u2019s rent must be within the limits for the household type and local authority area.<\/p>\n
The quarterly Locked Out of the Market report by Simon Communities of Ireland\u2019s (SCI) indicates that just 20 properties were available to rent within any of the HAP limits across three dates in June.<\/p>\n
The report found 1,303 properties were available to rent at any price within the 16 areas surveyed over the three dates surveyed in June.<\/p>\n
This is an increase of 22 per cent since March this year and of 33 per cent since March 2025.<\/p>\n
This is the second such report since a series of rent reforms came into force in March, where a cap on rents in some areas was replaced with a nationwide cap that allows landlords to raise rents beyond the limit, of a maximum of 2 per cent, to match the market rate when newly introduced six-year tenancies end.<\/p>\n
Three of the 16 areas examined in the Simon Community report saw a reduction in the number of HAP properties available since their last report in March.<\/p>\n
These include Cork City Centre, Dundalk, and Sligo Town, which all saw a reduction of one property each.<\/p>\n
The supply of properties within HAP limits continue to mainly be located in the Dublin area.<\/p>\n
Of 20 available HAP properties, 17 were in three Dublin study areas, and only one of the 13 study areas outside of Dublin had properties available to rent within HAP limits \u2013 Kildare, which had three properties.<\/p>\n
Executive director at the Simon Communities of Ireland Ber Grogan said: \u201cThe Simon Communities of Ireland has published the Locked Out of the Market Report for over 10 years, and our message has remained the same \u2013 the HAP system needs reform.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is almost one year since the minister confirmed that a review of HAP was under way, yet we are still no clearer on its findings or recommendations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill Budget 2027 finally deliver the long-awaited increase to HAP limits?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quarter one 2026 Homeless Progress Report showed that HAP was used less than in the same period last year, either as a homeless prevention measure or as an exit from homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cHAP is not working. People are still locked out of the market. We see and hear this on the ground every single day, across the country. People are being discriminated against.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is one short-term solution that would make an immediate difference \u2013 increase the HAP limits.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No properties were available to rent within a welfare scheme in areas outside Dublin or Kildare in June,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-584759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}