Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 July 2022
67. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of mortgage-to-rent alternative repayment arrangements executed in 2020 and 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36454/22]
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 concept of the scheme is that a household with an unsustainable mortgage goes from being a homeowner to being a social housing tenant.
Under the MTR scheme, the borrower surrenders their property to their lender and it will be then sold to an MTR provider who can be either an Approved Housing Body (AHB) or since 2018 a private company, Home for Life Ltd. The AHB or local authority (in the case where the property is sold to a private company) becomes the landlord and the borrower remains in the property as a tenant paying a differential rent to the landlord based on his or her income.
Mortgage to Rent is one of the solutions available to a borrower under MARP and it is not an Alternative Repayment Arrangement. An Alternative Repayment Arrangement may be a possible solution for a borrower who has difficulty in paying their mortgage, whereby they may be able to restructure their mortgage with their lender. More information on Alternative Repayment Arrangements can be found on the Citizen's Information website using this link: www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/owning_a_home/mortgage_arrears/alternative_repayment_arrangements.html
To the end of March 2022, 1,780 households with unsustainable private mortgages have completed the MTR process and 725 cases are being actively progressed. A total of 5,265 households are benefitting from the scheme which comprises of 2,892 adults and 2,373 children. In 2020, 363 Mortgage to Rent cases were completed and in 2021, 678 cases were completed. The Housing Agency publishes, on a quarterly basis, detailed statistical information on the operation of the MTR scheme which shows a breakdown of the number of active, completed, ineligible and terminated cases. This information is available on the Housing Agency's website at the following link: www.housingagency.ie/housing-information/mortgage-rent-statistics
