Mr. Barry Quinlan:

I thank the Deputy. At the outset, cost rental is designed to be a completely new form of tenure rather than just being market-based private rental sector, PRS. Whatever safeguards are needed within the legislation for that to be clear will be provided. As Mr. Nicholson outlined earlier, the intention is very much to be clear to funders about the level of returns that will be tolerated. The intention is to put the shape on that. As the rents are so linked to the costs, it is critical that the allowable costs are clearly defined. Whatever is needed to be clear in that regard will be provided and we will definitely take the feedback from the committee into account.

I might bring in Mr. Nicholson on the longer-term financing piece around cost rental. Part of that relates to the Vienna model. We have given the Vienna model a significant amount of consideration. It really is an incredible model, not just because the cost rental there is so effective, but it is often voted as one of the best places in the world in which to live. Much of that has to do with the fact that they got housing right to a large extent. It is a very successful model, but the authorities there have been pursuing it for a long time. As such, there is a significant amount of stock for which the costs would have been divvied up. The front-end costs would have reduced over time. There is a whole piece around the long-term sustainable financing element.

It is possible when one builds up scale over time. The income from the cost rental projects will allow for the funding of new projects. I will bring Mr. Nicholson in later on that point.

In regard to the shared equity scheme and supply, the concept is a simple one at its base in that, as I said, supply tends to respond to demand, but a realisable rather than theoretical demand. In terms of the launch of various schemes, there are schemes around Dublin that are delivering, but not the types of numbers that we need to be able to reach the output levels that we require. The proposal is that to the greatest extent possible we seek to facilitate people to buy those new units. As mentioned by Mr. Nicholson, these are, or can be, more costly units because much of the time they are premium units built under the new standards. The median price in Dublin for a first-time buyer is approximately €355,000. As I said, the objective is to facilitate more people to buy and realise their homeownership sooner. As supply responds to realisable demand - also known as definite demand - the response would come. The supply response is capable of being delivered because the planning permissions are in place. There are schemes that are delivering. We will deliver 21,000 homes this year. The estimated need is approximately 33,000 homes per year, so there is a gap. We are trying to bridge that gap by bringing realisable demand to the market.

I will bring in Mr. Nicholson at this point to address the longer-term financing piece around cost rental.