How the Circle process works
Circle Voluntary Housing Association was set up in 2003 and says it owns and manages over 2,700 homes nationally. The Housing Agency lists it as one of the current cost rental providers. Its cost rental homes so far are in Donabate (Lanestown View, 29 homes), Castletroy in Limerick (The Mills, three-bed houses) and Bray (Fontenoy Place, 28 apartments).
You apply on circlevha.ie or through the Daft.ie advert, entering your details into a self-service eligibility checker and registering interest in one home that suits your household. Everyone in the household has to be on the form or the application is ineligible. After the window closes the lottery runs on an external platform, adjudicated by the Housing Agency, and Circle works down the list. The deadline that catches people is short: if you are drawn you get 48 hours to upload the documents, against 72 at the LDA. Miss it and Circle moves to the next name. Once your documents are verified Circle contacts you within 10 working days, and it tells unsuccessful applicants within 30 working days.
Circle asks for more than the standard Housing Agency list: the last 12 months of payslips, six months of bank statements (a year if self-employed) with the last three rent payments highlighted, and a landlord reference that confirms the landlord is not getting HAP. It does not accept an IRP card as proof of residency. Its home-size rules are also more detailed, taking account of children’s ages and sexes, so check the size table on circlevha.ie before you pick a home.
From Circle’s own guidance and scheme adverts, checked 2026-09-24. Compared with the other providers in who provides cost rental in Ireland.