Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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82. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the causes of and cost factors associated with the very high cost of developing new homes here; his views on the costs published by the Society of Chartered Surveyors in May 2016 entitled, The Real Cost of New House Delivery; the costs he would dispute; the actions he is taking to secure a reduction in the costs of house building here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33178/16]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The costs associated with developing new homes and the factors influencing those costs are numerous and vary depending on the location and scale of development. The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland report on the Real Cost of New House Delivery, published in May 2016, outlined the costs of delivering a 113 square metre 3-bed semi-detached house to the market based on a study of a number of projects in the Greater Dublin Area.

In addition to measures such as reduced development contributions, a development contribution rebate scheme, changes to the Part V regime and new apartment guidelines, the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessnesspublished on 19 July 2016, sets out a broad range of further measures to tackle, among other things, some of the costs associated with the provision of housing in the interests of reducing construction overheads in order to facilitate an increased level of housing output into the future.

In particular, a €200 million Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) will provide much needed enabling infrastructure on key sites to open up lands for development from early 2017 onwards. In addition, the NTMA, through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), is developing proposals to offer competitive financing on a commercial basis, and in line with ISIF’s statutory mandate, to meet other infrastructure requirements on large development sites.

The Action Plan also contains a commitment to undertake a detailed analysis, in conjunction with the construction sector, to benchmark housing delivery input costs in Ireland. A working group, chaired by my Department, will begin work on this task over the coming weeks with representatives from the Construction Industry Council.

In the context of social housing provision, my Department undertakes analysis in respect of the average costs associated with the delivery of a range of differently sized social housing units, both in terms of construction costs and ‘all-in’ costs. These costs are based on an analysis of returned data from local authorities on social housing schemes.

My Department has also input into work led by the Department of Finance in relation to construction costs which was undertaken under the Construction 2020Strategy. In addition, costs are examined in the context of proposed legislative changes, particularly in relation to Building Regulations and a cost benefit analysis and regulatory impact analysis is carried out on any proposed amendments.