Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First of all, I will state unequivocally that the purchasing by institutional investors of completed housing estates is unacceptable and not consistent with Government policy. We do not want institutional investors competing with first-time buyers. Our priority is first-time buyers. Our priority is additional supply of housing. The cornerstone of our housing policy is to build 50,000 social homes over the next five years. It is the largest and most ambitious social housing programme in the history of the State, with 9,500 direct builds targeted this year and 12,750 social homes in total out of 25,000 houses overall this year. That is the bottom line insofar as this Government is concerned.

Institutional investment was brought into the country more than eight years ago through various measures to add supply, not to displace supply. That is the critical differential point. The Government will now examine what transpired over the weekend in respect of a suburban housing estate being purchased en blocby an institutional investor. That is not acceptable to the Government. I have spoken to the Ministers for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This issue will be examined across the board in terms of ensuring that the purpose and objective of inward investment in the residential market is to add supply, not displace supply and compete with first-time buyers out in the suburban market. Originally, the intention was to facilitate high-density build-to-rent housing a number of years ago in the cities. We were not in government at the time, but nonetheless capital is important in getting supply into this country. One has to distinguish between good capital and bad capital, between additionality and displacement.

In the past, banks drove construction activity in this country. That is no longer the case. Instead, this Government will drive new construction by providing unprecedented levels of funding to local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, to build social and affordable homes in what I have described as the biggest social housing programme in the history of the State. That is what we are about in relation to housing. On the affordable front, a suite of policies have been developed by the Minister in addition to ones already in place, every single one of which Sinn Féin has opposed, including the 22,000 purchasers who availed of the help-to-buy scheme, which has been in place now for a number of years.

The affordable housing Bill provides mechanisms and more opportunities to support affordable homes for couples and young people who want to buy housing. That is extremely important, including in the delivery of housing programmes and the construction situation from social homes to affordable homes, the development of brownfield sites, infrastructural development and the whole raft of urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, funding to, for example, enable infrastructure to facilitate the construction of housing. These are all important initiatives that will yield additional supply in the private sector over time. The development of the first national cost rental scheme should be acknowledged. It is a very significant development that opens up significant potential, not just this year, but into the future, with rents that are 25% below the market price. These are important developments. In addition to them, the Land Development Agency, LDA, legislation will provide a further mechanism to get additional supply into the market.

The fundamental point that I want to make this afternoon is that the purchase by institutional investors of completed housing estates is unacceptable and will now be examined by the Government in terms of dealing with that aspect of the events.

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