Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government recognises the housing affordability pressures faced by households, particularly those on low to moderate incomes, in parts of the country where housing costs and demand are highest. A number of measures have already been introduced to maximise and expedite housing supply and improve affordability. The latest housing activity reports indicate that the range of measures being taken are beginning to yield positive impacts in terms of increasing planning permissions, on-site commencement activity and more new homes being connected to the electricity grid.

In addition, under budget 2018 the Government has removed further significant obstacles to building more homes, more quickly and at more affordable prices by investing more in direct house-building by the State, providing additional funding for servicing housing land, removing the capital gains tax incentive to hold onto residential land, leveraging LIHAF investment in enabling infrastructure to provide a proportion of homes from these sites at reduced prices, escalating penalties for land hoarding and providing a new, more affordable finance vehicle for house builders through Home Building Finance Ireland. Furthermore, under budget 2018 I have also secured funding of €25 million over 2018 and 2019 to unlock local authority-owned lands specifically for affordable housing, using delivery models like co-operative housing, which have already proven to be successful but are now needed at a much greater scale. My Department is currently finalising the arrangements for the use of this funding and I expect to announce details in this regard shortly.

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