Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Housing for All is providing prospective home-owners with housing options they didn’t have when the plan was published two years ago. These options include Government supports for first-time buyers such as the Local Authority Home Loan, Ready-to-build and the First Home shared equity scheme, all of which are assisting those aspiring to purchase their own home to do so.

In this context, first-time buyer activity remains particularly robust, with recent data showing a year-on-year increase in the number of homes purchased and mortgage drawdowns by first-time buyers at their highest level since 2007.

At the same time, the growth in residential property prices has moderated significantly, down from a high of 15% in March 2022 to 5.4% nationally in the year to end January 2024. There are also recent signs the annual rate of growth in the prices of new homes has begun to moderate. Sectoral forecasts suggest a low single digit rise in prices in 2024.

The housing market is a complex landscape and it is particularly challenging to isolate the effects of subsidies and other supports for first-time buyers from concurrent factors such as income growth, inflation in construction materials and the availability of second-hand and new homes in specific local markets.

That said, an independent assessment of the 'Help to Buy' tax incentive, completed in 2022, suggested that that incentive had no discernible impact on the overall prices of new homes for first-time buyers.

Similarly, recently concluded research by KMPG on the First Home scheme suggests there is no evidence the scheme is inflating property values. Indeed, the research suggests, in some instances, it may be having the opposite effect, as builders choose to keep prices below the price ceilings for homes to qualify for the scheme.

Importantly, any inflationary pressure exerted by such subsidies and other supports is likely to be minimal and outweighed by the benefits of those supports, including reversing the declining trend in homeownership among younger demographics.