Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I believe Deputy Ó Broin said earlier that the majority of uncommenced apartments with full planning permission are in the buy to rent sector. I wanted to correct that, because there are twice as many apartments, around 19,000, in the build to sell sector with full planning permission that have not yet commenced. Only about half of that number are in the build to rent sector. The scheme is exclusively for build to sell.

Research has shown that the State needs, on average, 33,000 houses to be built every year to 2030. Additional supply is also needed to respond to the number of Ukrainian refugees we are committed to helping. The Government is determined to deliver an additional average of 11,000 social homes each year and 6,000 new homes under affordable housing arrangements each year. With this scheme, we are delivering support for the first-time buyers, right size housing and housing for our increasingly urban population. Far from gifting developers money, this scheme is about bringing much needed additional apartment supply on stream quickly. It will deliver 5,000 units. Prospective homeowners will be the beneficiaries.

It will offer additional choice to households who want to live in cities in areas that are accessible in terms of public transport infrastructure, and are close to work and other social amenities and services. This is an opportunity to help reimagine how we live and work in our cities. Over the longer term, other measures in Housing for All will act to reduce the cost of building apartments and reduce the price of development land. In the meantime, we need to get these 5,000 ready to go new apartments built. Apartments are key to delivering the national planning framework objective of compact urban growth, sustainable communities and vibrant liveable cities and reducing urban sprawl, which presents us with so many challenges, including unsustainable emission levels.

Those who want to live in the heart of our cities must have choices available other than renting. Without this scheme, new apartment owner occupation will not be available, except at the higher and more expensive end of the market. Without this scheme, only buy to rent apartments are likely to be built.

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