Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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399. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the average construction costs for social housing incurred by local authorities, per house, in tabular form. [36609/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Social Housing Investment Programme (SHIP) funded construction projects by local authorities must, like all publicly-funded construction programmes, comply with the Infrastructure Guidelines (Public Spending Code) and the Capital Works Management Framework.

My Department periodically issues Basic Unit Costs (BUCs) for each local authority area, for use as a key benchmark for the development and costing of project designs at capital appraisal stage. While not a record of actual delivery costs, BUCs are based on an analysis of returned data from tendered social housing schemes over an extended period and are updated based on published tender index information.

To monitor tender cost trends and to inform BUC levels, my Department analyses the tender data f or the construction cost element of new build social housing projects approved under the SHIP and the Capital Assistance Scheme, for the various unit types.

The tables below show the average construction costs (incl. VAT) per unit type, recorded as part of the aforementioned analysis for projects tendered in 2023 and early 2024.

The tables also set out the range of costs that make up this average for each unit type. The range of costs recorded vary, depending on design, location and on the level of abnormal requirements for each scheme (e.g. site conditions, demolitions, service diversions, site access requirements). Average abnormal costs are also separately identified in the below tables.

• Design/technical fees: Design fees vary from project to project, depending on the location, size and complexity of a scheme (and depending on whether design services are provided by a local authority in-house or via external appointment). As a guideline/indicator, design fee are generally expected to range between 7.5% to 12.5% of construction costs
• Land cost: Land costs will vary significantly from project to project, depending on location and ownership status (i.e. land costs could vary from existing local authority land at no cost to land purchased at market value)
• Utilities: Connection fees for Irish Water, ESB, gas, etc. As a guideline/indicator, utility connection costs are generally in the order of €7k per unit
• Other Costs: Other items that make up the all-in delivery cost can include site investigations/surveys, archaeological requirements, Percent for Art contributions - and will vary from scheme to scheme.