Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government is absolutely committed to increasing the supply of all types of homes, including social, affordable and private housing. We believe in homeownership and want everybody to have the opportunity to own his or her own home. Institutional investment in the private rental sector is just one aspect of increasing supply. Although such investment is growing, institutional landlords comprise a very small minority of landlords overall. Fewer than 5% of landlords own over 100 units. The vast majority of landlords, or just over 70%, own just one property, as I outlined to the Deputy last week.

Official statistics of the purchasing activity of institutional investors will be available from the CSO in the summer but in 2017, the latest year for which we have data, combined purchasing activity of property funds, real estate firms and REITs accounted for a net 1% of transactions. Crucially, institutional investment is adding to supply. This year, it is expected that the vast majority of professional landlord investments will be through forward-purchase arrangements, i.e., the forward-purchase of yet-to-build stock. Much of this is new supply that would not be delivered without the availability of this capital. Increasing the supply of urban apartments is essential if we are to reach our national planning framework targets and meet our commitment to more sustainable living generally in our cities. The number of apartments granted planning permission in 2008 was up by 130% in 2016. Large-scale investors are likely to be a driving force behind such a welcome increase in the supply of apartments.

I share the Deputy's concern regarding the fact that we need to watch this market closely. I share his view that we need to consider the taxation approach to increasing investment, particularly in apartments. To try to paint this as a matter of institutional investors versus others who want to buy their own homes on an individual basis, however, shows a misunderstanding of what we need to do collectively to try to increase supply across all areas. The latter is what we are trying to do. Without institutional investment, there are many apartment developments that simply would not be happening or would not be financed. We need more available rental properties. This is part of the way of doing it.

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