Written answers

Thursday, 23 June 2022

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Housing Provision

Photo of Jennifer Carroll MacNeillJennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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63. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide an update on the delivery of affordable housing across the country, and specifically Dún Laoghaire; the updated guidelines on what constitutes affordable housing for each county or constituency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31901/22]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Housing for All strategy delivers on the Programme for Government commitment to step up housing supply and put affordability at the heart of the housing system, with an ambitious target of 300,000 homes over the next decade for social, affordable and cost rental, private rental and private ownership housing. It will see 54,000 affordable home interventions which includes 36,000 affordable purchase and 18,000 cost rental homes to be delivered between now and 2030 by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), the Land Development Agency (LDA) and through ‘First Home’ a strategic partnership between the State and retail banks.

Under this strategy, approximately 10,000 Cost Rental homes will be delivered from 2021 to 2026 by AHBs, Local Authorities and the LDA.  AHBs will be supported by Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) funding and Local Authorities will be able to avail of funding for Cost Rental delivery through the Affordable Housing Fund, formerly the Serviced Sites Fund. The LDA will also deliver Cost Rental on its own portfolio of sites or through acquisitions under Project Tosaigh. As it is the first year of most of these programmes, pipeline projections are only being developed and numbers may increase over the year as schemes get approved.

To date, approval in principle has been confirmed so far for approximately 900 Cost Rental homes to be delivered by AHBs under the CREL scheme in the period to 2023. The necessary financial and commercial arrangements in relation to a number of these projects are being completed by the AHBs concerned. Full details of the projects, including specific locations, housing typologies and cost-covering rents, cannot be made public until these arrangements are concluded.

Specifically in relation to Cost Rental housing delivery in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, 50 Cost Rental homes were tenanted in April in Woodside, Enniskerry Road, Stepaside, with rents with approximately 40% below open-market rates for comparable homes in that area. These homes were supported through the Affordable Housing Fund and were delivered in coordination between Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Tuath and Respond AHBs and the Housing Agency.

To date, I have made three sets of regulations that expand on the policy framework for this new sector as set out in Part 3 of the Affordable Housing Act. On 19 August 2021 I made the Affordable Housing Act 2021 (Cost Rental Designation) Regulations 2021, which came into effect that day. These Regulations govern the process by which the owners of dwellings may obtain the designation of their properties as Cost Rental dwellings. The text of these Regulations is available online at:

www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2021/si/425/made/en/print.

In relation to affordable purchase and the Affordable Housing Fund, any funding being made available will be underpinned by local authorities' Housing Delivery Action Plans. Local authorities submitted their initial Plans to me last December. Preparation of the Plans is allowing each local authority to assess the level of demand with affordability constraint in their area based on the Housing Need and Demand Assessment and plan provision accordingly. The Plans are being revised and updated by local authorities in the light of ongoing engagement and clarifications, and I expect that they will be ready for publication by the summer. 

The Affordable Housing Fund provides exchequer funding support to local authorities to allow the delivery of housing at affordable prices or rents on local authority lands or via advance purchase arrangements with developers for new housing on developer-owned land.  Funding has already been approved for 6 advance purchase arrangements by local authorities to deliver almost 200 housing units in 2022.

In addition, I have signed two sets of Regulations which underpin the Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme, made under the provisions of Part 2 of the Affordable Housing Act 2021, which came into effect on 13 April 2022. The Regulations provide the basis for the making available of affordable purchase homes by local authorities and the administration of sales.

The Affordable Housing (No. 2) Regulations 2022 prescribe, among other things, the notification of affordable dwelling schemes to the public, the use by Local Authorities of schemes of priority, the calculation of home purchase prices and the equity shares to be taken by the Local Authority, and the minimum payment for a homeowner redeeming the Local Authority's equity interest. The text of these Regulations is available online at:

www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2022/si/184/made/en/print

The LDA is pursuing a twin-track approach of accelerating near term construction of affordable homes on private land, whilst continuing its work on public land. It is also over the longer term, assembling large state-owned land banks capable of delivering thousands of new homes.

Details of the work that the LDA is progressing on public lands that will deliver affordable purchase and cost rental can be found here;

lda.ie/projects-schemes/.

In 2022, the LDA will see construction commencing on two of these sites, St Kevin’s Hospital, Cork city (delivering 265 units) and Shanganagh, Shankill in conjunction with Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (delivering 597 units with 306 cost rental and 91 affordable homes).

Examples of further progress that has been made can be seen in the LDA’s has recent submission of planning applications which include 344 homes in Hackettstown, Skerries, 817 homes in Castlelands, Balbriggan, 219 units in Devoy Barracks, Naas, and, in relation to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, 977 homes in Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum. 

In addition to the public lands that the LDA is working on, Project Tosaigh is a market engagement initiative to unlock land with full planning permission that is not being developed by private sector owners due to financing and other constraints, and use it to accelerate the supply of affordable housing. The target under Project Tosaigh is the delivery of 5,000 new homes by 2026 for affordable cost rental or sale to eligible households under affordable purchase arrangements. The first strand of Project Tosaigh involved an expressions of interest (EOI) process, launched in November 2021, to engage builders and landowners in forward purchase agreements, with the intention of securing stock in certain developments in the shorter term. Details of all homes that will be made available under Project Tosaigh will be confirmed when commercial agreements are finalised. 

In addition to the schemes already mentioned, Part 4 of the Affordable Housing Act 2021 provides for the establishment of the ‘First Home’ affordable purchase shared equity scheme to support purchases in the private market. The Scheme aims to support c. 8,000 households in acquiring new homes in the private market in the years 2022 to 2026.

First Home will help applicants to afford new homes in the private market through the use of an equity share model, similar to that employed in the Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme. The Scheme will primarily support First Time Buyers in the purchase of new homes within designated regional price ceilings, set with reference to the median prices for new homes purchased by first-time buyers in the area.

Subject to the necessary final approvals process of all founders to the scheme, which will see the State operate the scheme in a strategic partnership with participating mortgage lenders, it is anticipated that First Home will become operational in the coming weeks. Full information, including full eligibility criteria and regional price ceilings for homes, will be available on the First Home website upon the Scheme’s launch.

Additional affordable housing delivery will be facilitated under the provisions of the expanded 20% Part V requirement as and when they arise, and subject to the planning process. 

Other measures, such as the Help to Buy Scheme and the Local Authority Home Loan (formerly the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan), are also available to eligible purchasers nationally to make home ownership more affordable.

Housing for All introduced the Local Authority Home Loan scheme as a successor to the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan. The new Local Authority Home Loan commenced on 4 January 2022 and has a lower interest rate and higher income eligibility than previously applied. The Local Authority Home Loan will support First-time Buyers buying new or second-hand homes, as well as self-builds. More details on the Local Authority Home Loan scheme are available on the following link   

localauthorityhomeloan.ie/  

The Help-to-Buy incentive supports First-time Buyers in meeting the deposit requirements for newly-built houses or apartments, as well as self-build homes. Subject to the level of income tax and DIRT paid over the previous 4 years, the Help-to-Buy scheme provides a maximum benefit to first-time buyers of €30,000 or 10% of the cost of the newly constructed home. 

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