Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Before answering, I wish everybody a happy and successful 2024.

In 2021, the Government took a number of actions. To discourage significant purchases in housing estates by investment funds, a higher 10% rate of stamp duty was introduced on the purchase of ten or more houses in a 12-month period. Planning guidelines were issued to restrict the bulk-buying of houses and duplexes. A section 28 guideline was issued to all the planning authorities which aimed to prevent multiple homes being sold to a single buyer. Since May 2021, planning applications have been subject to these restrictions. Since the introduction of these measures in 2021, the increased level of stamp duty has applied to 1% of the total new homes built. That is a small percentage of all homes being built.

The planning application for Belcamp Manor predated the new restrictions. The way to deal with this issue is to increase the supply of housing stock. We all agree on that. Last Monday, I was in Dundalk and the number of new housing developments there is unbelievable. Thousands of new houses are being built. That is happening throughout the country. Some 30,000 new homes were built in the past year. The numbers of planning permissions and commencements are way up and mortgage approvals are at a record high, with 500 first-time buyers drawing down their mortgages every single week.

The policies of the Government are working. As regards Sinn Féin policies, it wants to abolish the help-to-buy scheme which helped more than 28,000 first-time buyers to get their keys last year. The latest is that it wants to bring house prices in Dublin down to €300,000. I am the Minister for Rural and Community Development. How much does Sinn Féin believe house prices outside of Dublin should be? What price does it put on a house in Monaghan, Cavan, Donegal, Longford or Leitrim? What is its policy? Is it that everybody should be in negative equity?

I was talking to a farmer the other day whose son is building a house on his own land. He said he cannot build the house for €300,000. It will not and cannot happen, even though he is getting the site for nothing. If it cannot be done in Monaghan, it cannot be done in Dublin. A report issued by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, SCSI, last year stated that the average cost of rebuilding a four-bedroom home was €384,000. That figure excludes the site cost and refers to the cost of rebuilding.

A report from Goodbody's last night stated the number of new house starts in the final three months of 2023 was 51% higher than in the same period in 2022 and that 33,000 houses were started in 2023. We have the highest level of housebuilding since the crash. More new developments are springing up all over the country and more houses are coming on stream all the time. We know we have more to do but the policy is working.

The issue the Deputy raised represents a very small proportion of houses.

In fact, it is 1% so they are not snapping up homes for families.

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