Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

The publication of the National Housing Development Survey marks a crucial first stage in tackling the problems associated with unfinished developments. It should also serve to draw a line under much of the speculation over recent months about the extent of the overhang of unsold properties and of incomplete developments. The problems and difficulties faced by people living day to day in unfinished estates must be addressed but by undertaking this evidence-based survey of activity and conditions on the ground, the Government has taken prompt action to come to grips with an unprecedented set of circumstances.

In excess of 2,800 housing developments were identified where construction had commenced but had not been completed, and these developments translate into more than 180,000 housing units for which planning permission has been granted. Of those, more than 120,000 dwellings have commenced construction and 77,000 are completed and occupied. A further 33,000 homes are either completed and vacant or nearly complete, requiring, for example, final fit-out and connection to services. This equates to the total amount of real overhang of unoccupied houses - 33,000 unoccupied, nearly finished houses. A remaining 10,000 dwellings are at various stages of construction, from preliminary site clearance to foundations to wall plate level. While the results of this survey will not immediately change the reality for those living in half-finished developments without roads or street lights, the survey gives some significant comfort at an aggregate level. At that level, the problem is nowhere near as great as some have suggested.

Undoubtedly, the timing mismatch between the collapse in demand for housing and the less rapid growth of construction output has led to a position in which there is now a significant overhang of unsold property, but previous estimates of the overhang have been largely desk-top exercises. This survey is more refined. The figures have been arrived at using a robust methodology based on on-site inspection by my Department's regionally based national housing inspectorate. A point that was lost in previous discussions on the extent of the overhang is that every housing market in the world, regardless of at what point of the market cycle it is, whether booming or falling, will have a certain level of vacancy in its stock. The Irish housing market is no different.

These survey results provide an important snapshot of the housing market in Ireland. The market remains weak and is likely to be so for some time to come. Now that we have identified the extent and scale of the problem and differentiated between the various types of incomplete estate, from finished but unsold units to abandoned and half-finished developments with no occupants, we can assess how best to manage the problems that have arisen. It is inaccurate to lump all the 2,846 estates inspected by my Department into the same category. As the detail of the survey shows, some of the estates were completed and fully occupied, some were completed and almost completely occupied, and some were completed and not occupied. It is worth noting that in terms of the scale of the estates surveyed, half had fewer than 30 dwellings and almost a quarter had fewer than ten. Of the 2,846 estates surveyed, 1,050 had some occupancy and were still under construction, whether that construction was ongoing or not. This represents roughly one third of the estates surveyed that are of the most serious concern.

From here we can move to the active stage, working with key stakeholders to develop appropriate interventions across a number of disciplines: public safety, the provision of bonds and securities, environmental protection, building control and estate management. The expert group I announced last week will be asked to develop practical and policy solutions to ensure satisfactory completion or resolution of unfinished housing developments. Its first job will be to complete work on the best practice guidance manual for managing and resolving unfinished housing developments. This will be a practical guidance document for people on the ground setting out the range of statutory powers currently at the disposal of local authorities to resolve urgent matters, and it will be delivered promptly. I have asked John O'Connor, chief executive of the Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency, to chair this group, and I am confident he will elicit the necessary engagement and co-ordination from stakeholders' representatives to deliver a succinct and coherent set of actions, recommendations and best practice guidelines.

From my perspective as Minister of State with responsibility for housing, there is an important distinction between incomplete developments and those that are not selling. The results provide a key strategic input not just to the evolution of the housing market generally but also to the delivery of social housing over the coming years. From the point of view of social housing, more important than the precise number of unoccupied units is what we propose to do with those that are vacant and available for use. For some time now, I have been pursuing a multi-stranded approach to obtain vacant unsold stock for use as social housing through a long-term leasing initiative. What this involves is a fairly straightforward matching up of oversupply with rising demand. This will be the central plank of social housing supply in the coming years.

Landlords, builders, developers and banks are all sitting on properties they cannot sell and either cannot or do not want to rent out privately. Some of these properties will end up with NAMA, and my Department is already engaging extensively with NAMA to ensure that wherever its aim to secure a sound return can be aligned with our need to provide accommodation for disadvantaged households, this will be achieved. The initiative is bearing real fruit. More than 2,500 units have been sourced and approved for use under long-term lease arrangements, and I expect that this initiative, along with the rental accommodation scheme, will account for around two thirds of total social housing delivery this year and more again next year. One of the main messages I want to get across to those retaining unsold vacant units is that my Department and every local authority in this country is open for business under the leasing initiative.