Cllr. Kieran Binchy has welcomed the news that Minister Phil Hogan has just signed into effect the law empowering Dublin City Council and other local authorities to sell local authority apartments to their tenants (by commencing Part 4 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009). This puts in place a series of steps which will culminate with tenants being empowered to buy out the Council and own their own flat.
The next step is for Dublin City Council to identify apartment blocks which might be suitable. Once identified, the matter will then be out to a vote of the residents, and if the residents vote to agree a scheme will be put in place by which individual tenants can decide to buy or not. The scheme will allow long-term residents of blocks which decide to go ahead with this to buy their apartment from Dublin City Council at a discount based on how long they have rented it for.
This is good news for both Dublin City Council and for its tenants. however the Council must manage the scheme to ensure that the income is used to increase the overall housing stock available to the Council, by re-investing all income in expanding the Council’s housing stock.