Mr. Eddie Taaffe:

We in the local authority sector view cost rental as a game changer in such development. We can apply for affordable housing funding to subsidise the upfront provisional cost of apartments or houses for cost rental. Looking at brownfield development in regional cities, for example, local authorities are looking at such sites and obtaining them through compulsory purchase order, CPO, if necessary. Some of them are problematic and need a CPO to clean up title, way leaves, etc. Thankfully, the borrowing costs for that are through the Housing Finance Agency. While there will be an increase, it still quite a low rate compared with others. The Housing Finance Agency in lending to a local authority is effectively lending to the State and it is recognised as such.

Cost rental is definitely something we are pursuing in the local authority sector and we should be using CPOs more to clean up those difficult sites where there may well be a need to do so. People may want to build in those places but there may be difficulties that the CPO process could tidy up. The approved housing body sector has a very strong pipeline of cost-rental equity loan-funded schemes and some of those have been occupied. There is a very strong delivery pipeline there between now and the end of the year and for 2023 as well. Interest rates are going up but they are still low enough to make cost rental work. A number of local authorities are pursuing it actively.