Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 July 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Cost Rental Housing Model: Discussion

9:00 am

Mr. Noel Cahill:

With regard to the size of the sector, we did not put on number on it. A number of European countries have approximately 20% or more than 20% social housing. The highest share of social housing I am aware of in a European country is the Netherlands, where it is approximately one third. Here, it needs to be substantially higher than it is at present. Over time, we would be looking to get to 20%, including existing social housing. With regard to what happens to rent in the long term, it will generally be the case that surpluses build up and they become the equity which can be used to fund some of the cost of new developments. Austria has a feature whereby, in the very long run, there is a massive fall in rents. There are reasons for and against it. It is more common that it does not fall massively. The funding can be used for new development and refurbishment.

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