Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

825. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of housing units that are being bought by foreign private rental firms in Ireland each year. [1539/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department doesn't track the purchase of houses by individual or institutional purchasers, whether domestic or from overseas.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) captures and publishes data on house purchases by household and non-household buyers, including by institutional investors.

The data can be accessed via tables HPA02 and HPA12 on the CSO website www.data.cso.ie/.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

827. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he is aware of any undue delays of occupation in newly built social housing units at a location (details supplied); if any delays are an isolated case, and whether any action will be taken to expedite the process in general; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1563/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department operates a number of funding programmes that assist local authorities to work in partnership with Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to construct and purchase homes and make them available for social housing. One such programme that local authorities and AHBs progress Social Housing projects through is the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF). 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. The local authority issues the CALF monies to the AHB and the local authority, in turn, recoups same from the Department.

Funding was approved the 27 October 2023 by my Department, under the CALF Scheme for 43 Social housing homes at the location referred to.

The allocation of social housing to tenants and matters arising, including the length of time it takes for this to happen upon completion of a project, is a matter for the local authority and accordingly the information sought in not available in my Department.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

828. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government for an update on the timeline for delivery of 67 units on Gerald Griffin Street/Burke’s Avenue in Cork city. [1573/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Gerald Griffin Street project is part of the Cork City Council’s social housing delivery programme under Housing for All. My Department welcomes all submissions from Cork City Council and we will endeavour to support them in any manner that we can.

My Department issued Stage 2 Approval-in-Principle for this project in July 2023. Cork City Council are working on a design for Statutory Approvals (e.g. Part 8).

The timeline for delivery is a matter for the local authority.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

843. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps he is taking to ensure that the bulk purchase of homes that were supposed to be available to individual buyers (details supplied) will not happen again; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1884/24]

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

844. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will introduce legislation to prevent investment funds from bulk purchasing homes in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1885/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 829, 843 and 844 together.

Under Housing Policy Objective 1.10 of 'Housing for All', the Government committed to introducing an ‘owner-occupier' guarantee to enable local authorities specify the proportion of houses and duplexes in a development for owner-occupiers. To this end, measures were introduced by Government in May 2021 to disincentivise and prohibit the bulk buying of such properties.

The measures included a higher 10% stamp duty levy on cumulative purchase of 10 or more residential properties, excluding apartments, in a 12-month period to disincentivise the bulk purchase of homes by institutional investors.

At the same time, Section 28 Guidelines for Planning Authorities 'Regulation of Commercial Institutional Investment in Housing' effectively introduced an ‘owner-occupier’ guarantee by ensuring new ‘own-door’ houses and duplex units in housing developments could no longer be bulk-purchased by institutional investors in a manner that displaces individual purchasers or social and affordable housing.

The guidelines provide for a form of condition to be inserted in applicable new planning permissions requiring all houses to be made available for sale and first occupation by separate, individual households for a period of years after completion (only applicable to houses and duplex units in mixed developments and not apartments).

Complementary measures were also introduced via the Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Act 2021, which provides that local authorities must ensure home ownership as a tenure type is provided for and estimated in their respective housing strategies. To this end, the Act introduces the principle of home ownership as a specific tenure type in a local authority housing strategy, with particular regard to developments of houses and duplexes, and gives further legislative effect to the Section 28 Guidelines issued in 2021.

I am satisfied the planning measures introduced in 2021 have been effective, with some 39,900 homes granted planning permission with conditions prohibiting the bulk purchase by, or multiple sale to, a single purchaser between May 2021 and December 2023. However, these measures cannot be applied retrospectively and would not have applied to the purchase of units in the development referenced, which records show received initial and subsequent planning approvals before the measures were introduced in 2021.

The suggestions that institutional investors are crowding out prospective owner-occupiers are not borne out by official data, which show institutional investors still comprise a relatively small proportion of residential properties purchased annually. In this context, and given the scale of new residential properties ring-fenced for owner-occupiers, I am satisfied that the actions which this Government have put in place have been effective and further change is not necessary at this time.

Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

830. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his Department's plans for the vacant HSE-owned former St Finan's Psychiatric Hospital in Killarney, Kerry; if it will be used for the development of affordable homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1671/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I understand that St. Finan's Hospital site in Killarney, Co Kerry is in HSE ownership.

It is open to the HSE to engage with the Local Authority or the Land Development Agency (LDA) to deliver on the housing potential of any vacant or underutilised state land.

I am informed that, to date, the site has not been offered to the LDA by the HSE for consideration as a potential site to develop for residential housing and that the LDA have no current plans for the site.

Any proposed disposal of relevant public lands must be offered first to the LDA for consideration of the delivery of housing. As relevant public land, at least 50% of any homes delivered on the site must be made available for affordable housing delivery, in addition to Part V requirements applying to the site.

I note that the LDA are actively developing large scale schemes of affordable and social homes on State lands in other areas of the South West. For example, construction work is underway at the former St Kevin's Hospital site in Cork City, where 265 new homes are to be delivered. The LDA has also recently announced plans to develop up to 600 social and affordable homes on the site of the former St. Josephs Hospital in Limerick.