Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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250. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the monitoring arrangements in place to establish the scale of building sites and construction projects, which were intended and planned for delivery of social and cost-rental housing by approved housing bodies and have now, subsequently, been purchased by private investment funds and are no longer part of his pipeline of projects for social and cost-rental programmes. [25308/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Given the importance of the Approved Housing Body (AHB) sector in the delivery of social housing there is an ongoing level of communication and interaction with this sector across my Department regarding a range of funding streams and in the area of AHB policy and regulation.

In regular meetings with officials of my Department the AHB sector advise and update on the status of projects including where relevant details of any projects which they advise are no longer part of their delivery pipeline. This level of information available to my Department is supplemented by information from the Local Authority quarterly returns. It is using this methodology whereby my Department would be made aware of any project which no longer forms part of an individual AHB delivery pipeline including those that might be purchased by a private investment firm.

A detailed Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR) is published each quarter. The CSR provides details of individual build projects in each local authority. The most recent publication covers the period up to the end of Q4 2020 and is available at the following link:

Approved Housing Bodies are also playing an important role in the delivery of homes in the new cost rental sector. This includes the delivery of the first 440 homes beginning this year and supported via the Serviced Sites Fund and through the Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL). Commercial arrangements for the eight CREL sites selected under the initial tranche of funding for this scheme are currently being finalised by the relevant AHBs, and I hope to be able to make an announcement concerning their specific locations shortly.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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251. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the level of financial return for private operators planned as part of his cost rental proposals in the Affordable Housing Bill 2020; and the regulatory, governance and due diligence arrangements he has planned for private operators to ensure viability and transparency of cost-rental housing in cases in which they are not regulated by the housing Acts or the Approved Housing Body Regulatory Authority. [25309/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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This Government is fully committed to implementing a new Cost Rental sector in Ireland. Significant progress has already been made through the Enniskerry Road pilot project supported by Serviced Sites Funding, the new Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) scheme, and through legislative provisions in the Affordable Housing Bill 2021, which was recently approved by Government and is now published. Our approach to Cost Rental has been modelled on similar successful models elsewhere in Europe.

Cost Rental homes will be governed in line with provisions in the forthcoming Affordable Housing Bill, which defines Cost Rental in Ireland for the first time and will regulate tenancies in which rents only cover clearly defined costs. The Bill sets out how 'financing costs' are an element of the overall cost of delivery to be covered by rents, and that this category includes both interest on debt funding and also a limited return on any equity investment. While the precise figure for this limit on equity return will be set in Regulations, it is intended that it will be informed by the moderate return permitted for Limited Profit Housing Associations in other jurisdictions where the model operates very successfully.

Delivery of Cost Rental is expected to be through public and charitable bodies initially - Local Authorities, the Land Development Agency (LDA), and AHBs. It is also expected that State resources will support this initial delivery. In particular, AHBs will utilise the CREL scheme administered by my Department and the Housing Agency, together with loans on more commercial terms from the Housing Finance Agency. Allowance for a limited return on equity will permit AHBs and the LDA to invest their own funds in a sustainable manner, receiving a small return through rents and growing their resources.

While past experience has shown the difficulties in designing a Government policy intervention to be delivered 'off-balance sheet', the legislation has been drafted so as not to prohibit private sector involvement in future years. Some element of private investment may help to deliver Cost Rental at large scale in high-cost locations, in the context of limited Exchequer resources and the difficulties of securing reasonably-priced finance when projects are largely or wholly debt-funded. Although equity returns will regulated and limited, there may be interest from non-State investors able to take a long-term view or with a particular emphasis on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors.

If a private body is willing to commit to making homes available within the Cost Rental framework for a period of at least 30-40 years, such additional provision at no cost to the State would be positive. Private sector providers would be limited to the same allowable costs as Local Authorities, the LDA, and AHBs, with the same limited return on any equity investment. A private body would also be subject to the same Regulations, which will include the application process for landlords, eligibility criteria for tenants, mandatory elements of tenancy agreements, and an auditing process under which landlords must retain records and supply them to the Minister on request.