Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Since the Buy and Renew Scheme was introduced, local authorities have purchased c750 homes for social housing use. Nationally, the average cost to deliver one of these homes under the Scheme is c.€196,000 including the cost for the necessary improvement works to the properties.

I have asked local authorities to increasingly target vacant and derelict properties that can be brought back to use as part of new public housing delivery, particularly where good value for money can be obtained and there is no impact on the local property market and I have assured them of my Department's support in this regard.

Going forward, local authorities will be tackling such vacancy and dereliction through a more construction-led approach to deliver new social homes on existing sites and to support town centre and urban improvements. 

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department supports local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to acquire social housing homes through a number of funding programmes. The Social Housing Investment Programme (SHIP) and Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS) allow local authorities and AHBs to recoup 100% of acquisition costs. The Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) funding is capital support provided to AHBs by local authorities to facilitate the funding of construction, acquisition or refurbishment of new social housing units. This loan facility can support up to 30% of the eligible capital cost of the housing project, with the housing units provided to local authorities for social housing use under long-term lease arrangements known as Payment and Availability Agreements.

The table below sets out the average acquisition cost of social housing properties under the SHIP, CAS and CALF programmes in 2019, 2020 and 2021. 

	SHIP Acquisition	CAS Acquisition	CALF Acquisition
	Average Cost	Average Cost	(Average CALF Contribution)
2019	€233,000	€198,656	€41,700.05
2020	€237,500	€210,991	€21,873.90
2021	€211,000	€170,278	41,397.98

Note: The information above is calculated using the financial information available to the Department. Due to the nature of the CALF, delivery of housing does not always arise in the same year as expenditure and programmes may cross a number of payment periods. Approved Housing Bodies can avail of CALF funding of up to 30% of the capital cost of the project. Cost information provided may be subject to change.

The €70 million revolving Housing Agency Acquisitions Fund (HAA Fund) was established with effect from the 1 January 2017 with the objective of acquiring vacant property portfolios from banks and financial institutions that could then be used for social housing. The fund is replenished by the Housing Agency through the sale of units, primarily to AHBs, and used for future acquisitions. AHBs can utilise the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) and the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS) to part fund these purchases. The cost to the Department varies depending on the funding mechanisms chosen by the AHB.  The table below shows the average acquisition cost per unit delivered by the Housing Agency using the HAA Fund from 2019-2021. 

	Average Acquisition Cost Per Unit
2019	€178,616
2020	€214,253
2021	€243,854

Note: The cost to the Department varies depending on the funding mechanism chosen by an AHB to purchase the properties acquired under the HAA Fund programme. AHBs primarily access a CALF loan of up to 30% of the capital acquisition costs to part fund the purchase of the properties. In specific cases, an AHB can also apply for CAS funding, which is up to 100% of the capital acquisitions costs. 

A further 52 properties were delivered under the HAA Fund programme but bought directly by local authorities in 2019 and 2020 using capital funding through the Social Housing Capital Investment Programme. The table below shows the average acquisition cost per unit each year. 

	Average Acquisition Cost Per Unit
2019	€150,868
2020	€130,714