Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Croí Cónaithe (Cities) Scheme supports building 5,000 apartments for sale to owner-occupiers up to 2026. The Scheme aims to bridge the current “viability gap” between the cost of building apartments and the market sale price (where the cost of building is greater). The Scheme is managed by the Housing Agency on behalf of my Department and is targeted principally at activating planning permissions already in place for such homes.

To date, two calls for expressions of interest have been undertaken under the Scheme.

I can confirm that 4 proposals have been approved in 2023 for the delivery of 425 units under the first call. As the scheme concerns apartments which typically take between 18 months to 2 years to build, delivery is expected to begin in 2025. Further proposals from this initial call remain under consideration by the Housing Agency and are being progressed.

The closing date for the second call for expressions of interest was in September of this year and nine eligible proposals, with the potential to deliver more than 1,000 units, were received under this call. These are presently being assessed by the Housing Agency.