Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 23 January 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Update on Affordable Homes, Public Lands, Strategic Planning and Projects: Land Development Agency

Photo of Steven MatthewsSteven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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I am going to take the next slot. I think Mr. Coleman may have answered the question for me but I will ask it again to be sure. The cost of construction has increased hugely in terms of the cost of materials and the capacity and resources that are in the industry. Contractors are attracted to the most lucrative builds. We have covered interest rates, the supply chain, and all the rest of it. The quality of what is being built now is incomparable to what was built in the 1970s, 1980s and even in the 1990s but that obviously adds to each unit cost for the LDA. That is what we see from the SCSI reports as well. When the LDA builds a unit for cost rental, the rental should be set at the cost of construction, plus maintenance and interest rates. How does the LDA make a decision on how much equity it will sink into each of these units in order to get to a rent that we consider is a STAR-type rent? How does the LDA keep working that out?