Dublin City Council votes to restrict build-to-rent schemes
Dublin City Council votes to restrict build-to-rent schemes
Words: Eva O’Beirne
Public representatives voted to limit the number of rental-only units to a maximum of 40 per cent of any new development in Dublin.
The Office of the Planning Regulator warned Dublin City Council that the plans went against national policy.
Build-To-Rent apartments do not have to comply with minimum size standards and other space requirements of homes for sale.
Independent councillor Nial Ring spoke of his objection to Build-to-Rent schemes, comparing the apartments to tenements: “We don’t want any substandard… they call it flexible standards, it’s substandard, it’s inferior. It’s going back to tenement buildings almost.”
On Monday, Dublin councillors agreed to set the requirement for 60 per cent of apartments to meet build-to-sell standards into the final development plan that will govern development in Dublin for the next five years.
Ring also noted that the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien had recently indicated he intended to abolish Build-to-Rent schemes: “Given the Minister for Housing’s recent statement that ‘there is no longer a planning rationale to retain Build-to-Rent as a separate development type subject to more flexible design standards’, it could be argued that these entire Build-to-Rent references in the Development Plan be deleted.”
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