Written answers

Thursday, 18 May 2023

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Housing Policy

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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98. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he is considering supports for the construction of affordable homes for purchase along the lines of the supports recently announced for cost rental. [23561/23]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Housing for All 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 by 2030 for social, affordable and cost rental, private rental and private ownership housing.

My Department has introduced a number of initiatives to support the delivery of affordable homes for purchase.

Firstly, under the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) up to €150,000 per unit in funding is available to Local Authorities to support affordable housing purchase under a local authority administered scheme in housing developments located in large or key towns where an affordable housing need is evidenced.

Additionally, the Land Development Agency is also tasked with unlocking stalled private, planning-consented developments in the short-medium term through its market engagement initiative - Project Tosaigh. The LDA has brought the first affordable purchase homes sourced via this initiative to market in conjunction with Cork County Council and Waterford City and County Councils and has a pipeline of further projects anticipated to deliver affordable for sale and cost rental homes.

The First Home Scheme, launched in July 2022, supports first-time buyers in purchasing new houses and apartments in the private market through the use of an equity share model, similar to that employed in the Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme. The key policy objective behind the First Home Scheme is (1) Making homes more affordable for first-time buyers, allowing them to exit the rental market and achieve the stability and security of home ownership, and thereby creating a realisable demand for such homes to be met by the construction industry, and (2) Addressing viability by supporting realisable demand for homes and thereby alleviating builder hesitance, particularly in relation to projects with more marginal viability. At the time of inception of a shared equity scheme, there were approximately 80,000 un-commenced planning permissions, most of which were in urban areas with the highest housing demand to new supply.

Last September, I launched the Ready to Build Scheme as part of the Croí Cónaithe Towns Fund. Under this scheme, local authorities will make serviced sites in towns and villages available at a discounted rate to individual purchasers who will self-build their own home and live in it as their principal private residence.

It is intended that the local authority will either supply existing sites in their control or purchase sites and make them available for development by providing services and access to the sites concerned. The level of discount to the individual will depend on the level of servicing cost incurred by the local authority before the sale of the site but will not exceed €30,000. The amount of such discount will be reflected in the sale price of the site to the purchaser.

When the Croí Cónaithe Towns Fund was launched, a commitment was given that the schemes funded by it would be kept under ongoing review and it is intended that a comprehensive review and evaluation of the Ready to Build Scheme will be undertaken by mid-2024 as part of this.

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