Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 February 2022
382. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the way that funds are distributed between an organisation (details supplied) and local authorities in a situation whereby a tenant is able to repurchase their home from the mortgage to rent scheme. [8315/22]
View answerThe Mortgage to Rent (MTR) scheme was introduced in 2012 for borrowers of commercial lending institutions and is targeted at those households in mortgage arrears who have had their mortgage position deemed unsustainable by their lender under the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process (MARP), who agree to the voluntary surrender of their home and who have very limited options, if any, to meet their long-term housing needs themselves. In addition, the household must be deemed eligible for social housing support. The borrower surrenders their property to their lender who sells it to a MTR provider which can be either an Approved Housing Body (AHB) or since 2018 a private company, Home for Life Ltd.
In cases where the property is sold to a private company, the local authority becomes the landlord and the borrower remains in the property as a tenant paying a differential rent to the local authority based on his or her income. If the borrower can obtain finance for the purchase of their home they can buy back the property. If the borrower is successful in purchasing back their property, the monthly lease arrangement payment between the local authority and the Mortgage to Rent provider will cease immediately. Private funding is used to purchase properties obtained by the private company in the MTR scheme and therefore no capital finance is required to be repaid to the State.
