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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 32, 38, 48 and 53 together.

Arrangements for homes to be made available for purchase at a discount on open market rates are now provided for under the affordable dwelling arrangements and Part 5 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, which I commenced in June 2018.  As Deputies will be aware, provisions in Housing Acts and the Planning and Development Act 2000 relating to affordable housing were repealed in 2011 in view of the fact that house prices had halved in the period between 2008 and 2011.

I signed regulations in respect of the making of a scheme of priority on 12 March 2019 and these were issued to local authorities on 22 March 2019.  The purpose of a scheme of priority is to set out the affordable purchase arrangements at local authority level.  This includes the methodology that will be applied by local authorities to determine the order of priority to be accorded to eligible households in instances where the demand for homes under the scheme exceeds the number of homes available.

Further regulations will be put in place over the coming months regarding income eligibility and other matters. When the operational procedures for the scheme have been finalised and before affordable homes are made available under the scheme, a programme of communication will be undertaken by my Department and local authorities.

In order to support the delivery of homes to buy or rent at rates which are discounted on open market prices, this Government has committed €310 million under the serviced sites fund, or SSF, from 2019 to 2021 to provide infrastructure to enable the delivery of some 6,200 homes.

To date, I have allocated funding of €127 million in support of 35 projects in 14 local authority areas for infrastructure works that will see the delivery of almost 3,200 homes. The overall cost and the timing of delivery for these projects is contingent upon the completion of design, planning and procurement in the first instance, and local authorities are working to achieve delivery as quickly as possible.  I confirm that the first SSF supported affordable homes will be delivered on a site in Boherboy, County Cork, in 2020. Delivery across the country will increase incrementally on an annual basis thereafter.

The selling price of homes made available for purchase by local authorities will be influenced by a number of factors including the cost of each particular development, which can vary significantly from one site to another, and the housing type involved.

While the Central Bank's macro-prudential rules must be applied to banks providing mortgages to the purchasers of what will be private homes available under the scheme, significant discounts of up to 40% of market prices will mean that these homes will be available to individuals on moderate incomes who would otherwise not be in a position to purchase their own home.

In addition to making more affordable homes available for purchase using the cost-rental model, the SSF will also play an important role in making homes available for rent at levels which are significantly below market rates.  I have convened a working group within the Department in conjunction with the Land Development Agency, the Housing Agency and other expert bodies. This group is developing the policy framework for the broader cost-rental model and examining how a sustainable financing structure can be established to commence delivery of units at the scale required to get this new category of housing off the ground. The work of the group is being assisted by a consultancy and research support that is being undertaken by the European Investment Bank on our behalf.

This work is being informed through two cost-rental pilot projects at the former St. Michael's Estate in Inchicore and at Enniskerry Road in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, respectively. The latter project has already commenced construction, supported by EIB funding, and the first homes are anticipated to come on stream from 2021.

To assist local authorities to progress projects that have been submitted under the SSF, my Department hosted an affordable housing workshop last Thursday. The workshop was attended by representatives from the 19 local authorities who were included in the first and second serviced sites fund calls.

These new schemes are set in the context of significant moderation in the growth in house prices and complement other key Government affordability initiatives. Included among these are the Rebuilding Ireland home loan, under which over 1,000 loans had been drawn down by end June this year, and the help-to-buy scheme, under which some 14,000 applications have been approved. In addition, the Land Development Agency's initial portfolio of sites has the potential to deliver 3,000 affordable homes while the local infrastructure housing activation fund, or LIHAF, will support more than 2,300 affordable homes on mainly publicly owned lands. A further 5,600 homes some of which have already come on stream, will benefit from a LIHAF related cost reduction.

In overall terms, programmes are in place under which some 18,000 affordable homes or homes with a LIHAF-related reduction will be delivered. To date, 15,000 households have also been supported into more affordable homes under the Rebuilding Ireland home loan or the help-to-buy scheme.

The following are some examples of the cost of homes under the affordable scheme. In the Boherboy housing estate in Cork, for example, two-bedroom houses will be delivered at €200,000 or less. A single person earning €36,000 could afford to buy such a house using the Rebuilding Ireland home loan. In Ballymun, two-bedroom homes will be sold for between €148,000 and €168,000. A single person earning €31,000 would be able to afford one of these homes using the Rebuilding Ireland home loan. In Ballyfermot, one-bedroom homes will be available for approximately €136,000 which will be affordable to a person on €25,000. In O'Devaney Gardens, two to three-bedroom homes will cost €300,000. A couple earning €55,000 could afford such a home. A sum of €55,000 would typically be the combined income of a new teacher and a nurse living together and buying that home together. That is the type of affordability we plan to deliver on sites in Dublin, Cork and at the cost-rental site in Deputy Boyd Barrett's constituency, which will see two-bedroom apartments for rent at €1,200, or €600 per person. That is how we are trying to drive affordability by using the serviced sites fund to deliver homes that are affordable to buy as well as cost-rental housing.

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