The landscape
Cost rental homes are built or bought with State funding and let by three kinds of body: the Land Development Agency, approved housing bodies (the big three are Tuath, Clúid and Respond) and local authorities. All follow the same eligibility rules from the Affordable Housing Act 2021, which is why the €66,000 and €59,000 net income limits and the 35% rent rule appear on every advert. Everything else, from where you click to how long you have, is up to the provider.
The mix of who is advertising changes month to month. In the summer of 2026 the portal carried single re-lets from Tuath almost every week, a 226-home LDA block at Cooper Square, Respond’s 178-home Rathborne Wharf, Clúid schemes in Cork and Tallaght, and one council-run cost rental scheme in Cork County. The LDA had earlier launched a 621-home round across Hansfield, Citywest, Kilternan and Leixlip in a single announcement.
Side by side
| Provider | Where you apply | Documents | Window | Selection |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Land Development Agency (LDA) | lda.ie, register interest per property type | After the lottery: 72 hours to upload or the offer lapses | One to three weeks, closes at 12 noon on a stated day | External agency, full audit trail, after the window closes |
| Tuath Housing | tuathhousing.ie advert, then the Keyholder portal | With the application. No documents, no lottery entry | New schemes: closing date announced 7 days ahead. Re-lets: about 7 days | Random draw per home type, 1 to 3 days after close |
| Clúid Housing | cluid.ie, self-service eligibility checker, then Keyholder | With the application, one upload per document type | Stated per scheme, typically one to two weeks | Random draw, applications reviewed from the top of the list |
| Respond | respond.ie, online form per scheme | With or shortly after the application, per the advert | Stated per scheme | Random draw when oversubscribed |
| Local authorities | Council website, usually a Submit.com form | With the application | Two to four weeks, closes at noon on the stated day | Cost rental: random draw. Affordable purchase: time order with household-size priority |
The LDA
The LDA delivers the largest schemes and its process is the most formal. You register interest on lda.ie for one property type in one development, answering eligibility questions including how you calculated your net income. Affordability (rent at or under 35% of net income) is used to stream applicants before the draw. When the window closes, at 12 noon on a stated day, an external agency runs the lottery with a full audit trail and produces a randomly ordered list. The LDA works down that list.
If your name comes up you are asked for the full document set within 72 hours. Miss that and the offer is revoked and passed to the next name. This is where prepared applicants win. The LDA also states plainly that it is not an offer letter at that stage; the offer comes after verification. Recent LDA rents: studios from €1,050 at Barnwell Point in Hansfield, 1-beds from €990 at The Mills in Castletroy.
Tuath
Tuath is the provider you will see most often, because it advertises single homes as they come back, not only whole new schemes. Applications go through the Keyholder portal via the link on the Tuath advert. Documents are uploaded as part of the application; without them the application is not entered into the lottery. That is the opposite of the LDA sequence and it catches people out.
Tuath announces the closing date for a new scheme seven days ahead. Re-lets are open for about seven days. The lottery runs one to three days after closing, per home type, and drawn applicants get a short screening session and a virtual viewing of the home type before an offer. You can register interest in a development beforehand so Tuath emails you when it opens. There is no waiting list beyond that.
Clúid
Clúid also uses Keyholder. Its process starts with a self-service eligibility checker on cluid.ie, then registration of interest for a specific property, then document upload into each required category. Failing to upload means exclusion from the lottery. One quirk: if you make a mistake, you cannot edit. You submit a new application with the correct details. Joint applicants enter both sets of information. Clúid’s customer team answers questions by webchat or at [email protected].
Respond
Respond runs some of the largest single blocks in Dublin, including Rathborne Wharf in Dublin 15 with studios from €1,350 and 1-beds at €1,512. Applications are through an online form on respond.ie for the named scheme, with a random draw when oversubscribed and documents per the advert. Check each scheme’s page for its own closing date and document timing; Respond varies these more than Tuath does.
Local authorities
Councils are the main source of affordable purchase homes and occasionally of cost rental (Cork County Council’s An Cnocan, for example). Most use a Submit.com form linked from the council website, with documents uploaded at application. Windows are longer, often two to four weeks, closing at noon. For cost rental the selection is a random draw. For affordable purchase it is not: at least 70% of homes go by household-size fit and then by the date and time your eligible application arrived, so the opening minute matters. The equity share guide covers the purchase side.
What to do with this
- Create accounts now on lda.ie, Keyholder (through Tuath or Clúid) and register interest in any development in your county, even ones with no date yet.
- Keep a documents folder current: last three payslips, Employment Detail Summary and Statement of Liability from Revenue, three months of bank statements, ID, proof of address, landlord and employer references. The checklist has the sources.
- For Tuath and Clúid, upload everything on application day. For the LDA, have it ready to upload within 72 hours of the draw.
- Apply for the home size that matches your household. Wrong size is rejected without appeal at every provider.
- Watch the single re-lets. Fewer applicants, same rules. Alerts tell you the day one appears in your county.
Sources: LDA cost rental guidance and scheme pages, Tuath Housing cost rental FAQ, Clúid Housing cost rental FAQ, citizensinformation.ie (March 2026), council scheme adverts. Scheme sizes and rents as advertised in 2026.