Tenant-in-situ purchases in Dublin city fall by 70pc under ‘ridiculous’ restrictions
The number of homes bought by Dublin City Council (DCC) through the tenant-in-situ (TIS) scheme fell by more than 70pc last year, as funding uncertainty and government restrictions plagued the programme.
In 2025, 77 homes were acquired by DCC through TIS – a dramatic decline on the previous year, when 261 homes were bought by the authority.
The TIS scheme in Ireland aims to prevents homelessness by allowing local authorities to buy rental properties directly from landlords who are selling, enabling the tenant to remain in their home.
The number of vacant homes acquired by the council under its second-hand acquisition programme also fell from 83 to 46 in the same period.
The figures come after DCC confirmed it is still unaware of its TIS allocation from the Government for this year.
DCC officials have spoken in recent months of the difficulties they face in buying homes under TIS, after conditions placed on the scheme by Housing Minister James Browne last year.
The tenant-in-situ scheme was a very useful and effective tool preventing homelessness
One condition stipulates that the occupants must have been making use of the Housing Assistance Payment or Rental Accommodation Scheme for at least two years. Other changes deprioritise single people and couples without children.
The council is also no longer allowed to buy properties that require refurbishment.
Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan said the latest TIS figures were “shocking” and illustrate the effect of the Government’s restrictions.
“The tenant-in-situ scheme was a very useful and effective tool preventing homelessness, which is hugely important, because all the reports prove that if people are homeless once, it hugely increases the chance of you being homeless later in life,” he said.
Mr Doolan said the Government had a “very short-sighted” view on the scheme, and that new limitations on TIS purchases meant that many families would now end up homeless.
“We now have families facing homelessness, who will inevitably now end up homeless, because there is no tenant-in-situ scheme,” he said.
“It appears on paper, but there’s no funding behind it. It’s not a reality. The safety net isn’t there, and people are now falling straight into homelessness.”
He said the order to prioritise purchases for families over single people showed that the minister “simply doesn’t understand the reality of homelessness”.
The biggest increase in homelessness is single people, and they weren’t allowing us to buy homes for single people
“The biggest increase in homelessness is single people, and they weren’t allowing us to buy homes for single people,” he said.
“You have a ridiculous situation. What happens if there’s a couple and one of them is pregnant? Do they get to buy the home or not?”
Deirdre Heney, chairwoman of DCC’s Housing Committee, said last year’s TIS figure was “a stark drop”, but that she’d like to see more details before coming to a conclusion.
“It’s a very good scheme to keep people in their homes, there’s absolutely no doubt about it. But it’s a surprising drop in the number of houses purchased through tenant-in-situ,” the Fianna Fáil councillor said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Housing said the TIS scheme “has been an important measure in the prevention of homelessness since it was introduced in 2023”.
“The Government remains committed to continue having second-hand acquisitions as an option for our local authorities,” they added.