The 'Housing Intelligence for Dublin' project, initiated in 2014 by Dublin City Council in collaboration with Maynooth University, aims to develop a data-driven online monitoring tool to enhance housing decision-making across various sectors. This project includes the creation of a housing monitoring system based on census data, mapping of rent supplement recipients, and analysis of private rented sector trends. Future steps include publishing an annual report and expanding the dataset to improve insights into Dublin's housing landscape.

1. ‘Housing Intelligence for Dublin’
The Housing Monitoring Tool for the Dublin Region
Dr Dáithí Downey, Dublin City Council
‘Future Cities Session on Stories of data driven social and public innovation’
Presentation to Data Opens Doors Conference, May 7th 2015

2. Housing Intelligence for Dublin
• Joint project between Dublin City Council and AIRO at Maynooth
University underway since beginning of 2014
• Primary objective:
 Demonstrate how the mapping of housing data and production of online
monitoring tool can be used to support decision-making
 Key function is to assist decision-making in the provision of housing and related
services in Dublin for a wide variety of interests, including
 Construction sector
 Public and private housing sector
 Analysts (Geographers, Planners, Economists etc)
 Public decision makers (policy implementation)
 Policy decision-makers (elected representatives)
 General public

3. • Broad Project steps:
1. Development of DCC Housing Monitoring System based on readily
available census-based housing datasets
2. Development of DSP ‘Rent Supplement’ housing data indicators to
illustrate the scale and location of recipients at the local level
3. Identify and integrate existing ‘in-house’ Dublin City Council
housing related datasets
4. Project technical report including recommendations for next steps
• Project developed over 6 month period in 2014 to ‘proof of
concept’ stage and launch in July
Housing Intelligence for Dublin

4. Housing Intelligence for Dublin - Census
• (1) Development of baseline dataset on housing from Census 2011 (203
variables)
– Housing Tenure
• Owner Occupied, Owner Occupied with/without mortgage
• Rented from Private Landlord
• Rented from Local Authority
• Rented from Voluntary Body
• Occupied Free of Rent
– Housing Type (House/Bungalow, Flat/Apartment, Bed-Sit, Caravan/Mobile, Not Stated)
– Housing Year Built (10 age bands, latest 2006 or later)
– Number of rooms in Households (1 to 8 plus)
– Housing Vacancy
– Central Heating, Water supply, Sewerage
• All data can be mapped at the Small Area (SA) and Electoral Division (ED) level
across the region
– Small Areas (SAs): 4,806 with average pop 264, average housing stock 109
– Electoral Divisions (EDs): 322 with average pop 3,900
• Time Series Housing Tenure (1991 to 2011)

5. Housing Intelligence for Dublin
• As of 2011 - 121,690 Privately Rented (PR)
households within the Dublin Region
– 36.7% of State total
• Private sector renting in region has increased by
106% since 2002
– Dublin City +72% (+28, 956)
• In 2011, over a 1/3 of households in Dublin City
are PR (69,032) – 56.7% of region total
– Fingal 22.3%
– S Dublin 21.3%
– DLR 17.5%
• Highest rates in city centre and new regeneration
areas (Spencer Dock, Grand Canal)
– Traditional private rented areas:
– Phibsboro, Drumcondra
– Portobello, Rathmines, Ballsbridge
• High levels of support from DSP rent
supplement (increasing levels of long-term
>18months)

6. Housing Intelligence for Dublin – Rent Supplement
• (2) Mapping Rent Supplement data from Dept. Social Protection
– Dataset available to break down the Private Rented sector
• Who and where are the recipients of Rent Supplement across the Dublin
Region?
– Following negotiations with the Department for Social Protection (DSP), the AIRO
team secured access to a database of Rent Supplement information for the
Dublin region for both 2011 and 2013
– Data Protection a major concern for DSP
• Confidentiality Agreement set up between DSP and NIRSA
• Based on previous agreement set up with Data Protection Commissioner for
project on accessing Live Register data
– NIRSA appointed as Data Processor
• All data stored on encrypted USB
• To be processed on non-networked PC
• Individual records to be aggregated to EDs and SAs ( if suitable)
• Aggregates with <5 are to be compressed

7. Housing Intelligence for Dublin – Rent Supplement
• October 2013 extract geo-coded to allow mapping at local level
– 32,439 individual records

8. Housing Intelligence for Dublin – Rent Supplement
• October 2013 extract
– 32,419
• Dublin City = 16,163 (50%)
– Fingal = 7,824 (24%)
– S Dublin = 6,749 (21%)
– DLR 5.2% = 1,683 (5%)

9. Housing Intelligence for Dublin – Rent Supplement
• Total Rent Supplement Claimants 'Long-Term'
– Less than 5 : 3,099
– 5 to <9: 1,098
– 9 to <16: 426
– 16 to <27: 157
– 27 to <45: 23
– More than 45 : 3

10. Housing Intelligence for Dublin – Rent Supplement
• Approx €15m in Rent Supplement
expenditure (est. September 2013)
– Dublin City 44% (€6.52m)
– Fingal 27% (€4m)
– S Dublin 24% (€3.58m)
– DLR 6% (€835k)
• We can map this expenditure at the local level
– Less than €1,700 : 2,393
– > €1,700 to €4,000 : 1,189
– > €4,000 to €7,500 : 709
– > €7,500 to €12,500 : 324
– > €12,500 to €20,000 : 149
– More than €20,000 : 42

11. Housing Intelligence for Dublin – Mapping System
• Hosting of Mapping Toolkit
– Project mapping tool hosted on AIRO platform
– Project description page
– Potential to embed in DCC website etc
http://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/airo

12. Housing Intelligence for Dublin – Next Steps
1. Produce inaugural annual report on key housing indicators across Dublin
region in 2015
2. On-going working relationship with AIRO for the provision of:
a) Additional work with DCC and FCC, SDCC and DLRCC to indentify additional
housing datasets for inclusion in mapping system
b) Maintenance and update of key DSP data on SWA rent supplement including
additional analysis of DSP datasets to produce time-series at local level.
– Data released for period to end of March 2015 now being geocoded
c) Development of a joint project with PRTB to create mapped output of Rent
Index and related data on private rented housing in Dublin.
d) Explore opportunities with other public and private data sources on housing for
inclusion in the monitoring tool (e.g. Daft.ie; Irish Central Bank)