Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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554. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the cost per unit of a development (details supplied). [28879/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I understand that, working with Dublin City Council, AIB and industry professionals, Ó Cualann Co-Housing Alliance delivered new 2-, 3- and 4-bedroom, A2-rated, quality homes with sales prices ranging from €140,000 to €220,000. These 19 homes comprise the first phase of a 49-unit development in Poppintree, Ballymun, with the remaining 30 homes to be delivered shortly.

An additional site, also located in Ballymun, is to be developed by Ó Cualann, and will provide 39 homes, at prices ranging from €176,000 to €259,000, with Dublin City Council making the site available on the same terms as Poppintree.

Importantly, in order for Ó Cualann to be in a position to provide homes within this price range, Dublin City Council provided fully serviced sites at €1,000 per unit, as well as waiving development contributions and planning fees. Taking the foregoing into account, the total per unit investment by Dublin City Council was in the region of €58,000 per house, thereby facilitating the affordable delivery and ultimate lower sale prices of the homes.

In order to support local authorities to get their sites ready for affordable housing, I am providing additional funding for enabling infrastructure via the Serviced Sites Fund. Given that housing-related infrastructure will now be able to seek funding under the €2 billion Urban Regeneration and Development Fund, I am redirecting the €50 million funding, originally earmarked for a further call under the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund, to the Serviced Sites Fund, increasing the scale of the Fund from the previously announced €25 million to €75 million. When local authority co-funding is included, an overall minimum investment of €100 million will be available to offset the costs of providing both on-site and off-site enabling infrastructure for sites in order for them to be brought into use for affordable housing.

The call for proposals under this competitive-bid Fund has now issued and I expect to make funding announcements in September.