Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage

Challenges Relating to the Delivery of Housing: Discussion (Resumed)

2:00 am

Dr. Robert Kelly:

I can start and maybe Dr. Cassidy can come in with some of the details on financing. One thing that is worth separating out a little bit when we think about the conundrum around apartments is that there is probably two different types of investors that we need to separate in our minds. One are income-seeking investors. A lot of this relates to pension funds. What they want to do is not provide development capital but build a building, hold it as an investment asset, rent it out and take the returns. They are quite different. They all focus on what is called yield on cost. They are thinking about how much it will cost to put up a building and what yield they will get over 20 years, essentially putting it against their pension commitments.

The other side of it, which Dr. Cassidy might wish to come in on, relates to what development finance is needed, predominantly for owner-occupiers, to make them think about selling the property to a household. That is a different set of risks to the first one. Those two investors think quite differently. I think the Senator's main focus is how we can unlock the second one rather than the first. Dr. Cassidy may want to come in with his thoughts on that development finance aspect.

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