Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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62. To ask the Minister for Finance if his plans for the housing sector are to increase demand in order to increase prices; and if so, the level of house prices he envisages for the Dublin area. [3682/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As regards house price developments, national residential property prices reached a trough in 2013, having contracted by 54 per cent. In Dublin house prices began to decline earlier than the rest of the country reaching a trough in 2012. Since then the recovery in the economy, the sustained growth in employment and demographic changes have underpinned the 50 per cent increase in national house prices (66 per cent increase in Dublin).  The growth in house prices reflects the as yet insufficient supply response to meet the demand for housing. For example, in the 12 months to November 2016, 14,728 units were constructed and while this represents an 18 per cent increase over the same period in 2015, it remains significantly below estimated demographic demand of 25,000-30,000 units per annum.  

As the Deputy is aware, the Government has adopted Rebuilding Ireland, Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. This Plan constitutes a whole of government approach and aims, through some 84 actionable measures, to address the underlying structural constraints which continue to inhibit new housing supply. The implementation of the Action Plan will lead to the increased provision of social housing, the streamlining of the planning system and the removal of infrastructural constraints. Many of these actions will improve the viability of construction particularly in urban regions.

In recognition of the particular challenges faced by first time buyers in accessing the housing market, I introduced the Help-to-Buy initiative as part of Budget 2017. The initiative complements Rebuilding Ireland by providing immediate, targeted and time bound support to first time buyers as the measures announced in the Action Plan are rolled out but before they start to yield results.