Calls for council to purchase apartment block for €6 million for social housing

A call has been made for the council to purchase an apartment block on the market in Clondalkin for under €6m and add it to their social housing and cost-rental schemes.

The 20-unit Chaplain’s Terrace in Neilstown is on the market for €5.75m and is a fully occupied development with 20 own-door duplexes and houses featuring three bedrooms and one bathroom.

The housing block is described as “a high-quality residential scheme” and was originally constructed in 2007. It can be accessed via Neilstown Road.

Councillor Madeleine Johansson has called on the local authority to consider the purchase of the occupied site on the market before any evictions are issued to tenants, some of whom are availing of the HAP scheme.

Cllr Johansson said: “I would be concerned that [if] this was sold to a private owner that they would be potentially looking to get rid of those tenants and increase rents and so on.

“I feel that when we are in the middle of a housing crisis, it would make sense for the council to step in in circumstances like these where there’s multiple units up for sale that could be bought by the council and immediately provide housing for people.”

When advertised back in 2015, the site was described as 32 large three and four bedroom apartments, duplexes and town house units.

The council noted that they would be unable to go ahead with a purchase of these apartments without a notice to quit.

The Tenant-in-Situ scheme may only be used in circumstances where a valid Notice of Termination has been issued and where both the tenant and the property meet all of the mandatory criteria set out by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, per the local authority.

The scheme does not provide for the bulk purchase of a tenanted block for the purpose of converting existing HAP arrangements into social housing or cost rental.

Cllr Johansson called on South Dublin County Council to look beyond government policies and schemes when it comes to housing.

“Otherwise, we’ll be in serious trouble if all we do is what the Government tells us to do.

“We’ll be in this crisis for much, much longer.”

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme