Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The First Home Scheme, which launched on 7th July 2022, supports first-time buyers and other eligible homebuyers in purchasing new houses and apartments in the private market, and now self-builders, through the use of an equity share model. Details, including in relation to the application process, are available on the First Home Scheme website, www.firsthomescheme.ie.

In addition, the First Home Scheme Executive engages with various stakeholders such as customers and estate agents on a regular basis in order to ensure and maximise awareness of the scheme.

The First Home Scheme Designated Activity Company (DAC) is fully responsible for the operation of the First Home Scheme on behalf of all shareholders (the State, Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, and PTSB) and, as such, any changes to the operations of the Scheme are a matter for the Board of First Home Scheme DAC.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Part V provides for the State to capture a portion of the increase in land value resulting from the granting of planning permission for residential development and refers to Part V of the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2021. The Affordable Housing Act 2021 made a number of changes to Part V. These changes came into operation on 3 September 2021. Any planning applications processed after that time must comply with the new requirements under Part V of the Planning and Development Act. The specific information in relation to the number of planning permissions and individual units subject to an additional 10% requirement arising from the change to Part V sought is not collated by my Department at national level to date but my Department is working with the Housing Agency, the Local Government Management Agency and the local authority sector to put in place a method for collection of this data.

Section 28 Guidelines for Planning Authorities 'Regulation of Commercial Institutional Investment in Housing', issued in 2021, 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.

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.