Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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781. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide an estimate of the average current cost per unit of new local authority housing built; and if he will provide a breakdown of the component elements of that cost, for example, land, construction materials and wages. [30396/15]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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783. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if any research has been undertaken or commissioned by his Department to compare the long-term cost per unit of building local authority housing as opposed to renting or leasing it from private landlords. [30398/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 781 and 783 together.

There are significant variations in construction costs across the country and given also the range of variable cost elements, as well as site-specific factors such as location, availability of services and access to infrastructure, it is not possible to give a precise estimate of cost for the range of house types. However, in the case of the 100 social housing construction projects which I approved in May 2015, the overall cost was €312 .6 million for 1,740 new social housing units, giving an average unit cost of €180,000. There was a wide range of social housing units included in that announcement, from one-bedroom apartments in multi-storey developments, to four- bedroom semi-detached houses in various locations and with different site conditions. It is also the case that the costs cited are pre-tender estimated costs, which may vary following the formal tender processes.

In relation to rental costs, in 2011 the Housing Agency was commissioned by my Department to undertake a value for money and policy review of the Rental Accommodation Scheme, entitled Comparative Financial Appraisal of Long Term Costs of Social Housing Delivery Mechanisms which is available on the Housing Agency’s website – www.housing.ie. This review included a comparative cost study on the cost of leasing compared to the cost of providing social housing through a range of different delivery mechanisms, including the construction and acquisition of social housing. The report concluded that the social housing leasing model is likely to be more cost-effective than the traditional construction programme. This is without taking account of the wider benefits of having more flexible and graduated supports and the opportunity costs in terms of being able to deliver more housing.