Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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552. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to outline the relative success of the croí cónaithe (cities) scheme, the secure tenancy affordable rental, STAR, investment scheme and project tosaigh, in terms of delivered units and units expected to be delivered in late 2024 and 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44195/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Through Housing for All (September 2021) and the two annual updated action plans (November 2022, November 2023, respectively), the Government has set out its plan to address housing, bringing forward a range of short, medium and long-term actions to stimulate housing supply. Croí Cónaithe (Cities), the Secure Tenancy Affordable Rental (STAR) Investment Scheme, and Project Tosaigh, are part of a suite of housing measures in Housing for All designed to increase social, affordable and private housing supply.

The Croí Cónaithe (Cities) Scheme supports the building of apartments for sale to owner-occupiers. 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).

To date, I have approved the Housing Agency entering into agreements in respect of six proposals for the delivery of 640 units under the Croí Cónaithe Cities Scheme. It should be noted that developments typically take between 18 months and 2 years to complete, so these units are expected to be delivered in 2025 and in 2026.

A third call for Expressions of Interest proposals under the scheme was recently conducted and the Housing Agency are presently assessing the applications. 20 eligible applications have been received with the potential to deliver more than 3,200 units.

The STAR Scheme is intended to bring forward Cost Rental Units at scale and at rents which are more affordable, with the aim of assisting eligible households in the private rental sector, particularly in urban centres where prevailing rents are especially high. 39 applications have been received to date, with the potential to deliver over 4,700 units.

I have approved the Housing Agency entering into Cost Rental Investment and Equity Participation Agreements in respect of six applications to date, for the provision of 1,036 units in total. 426 of these units were delivered in 2023, with the remaining 610 units being delivered this year.

Two further STAR proposals, with the potential to deliver almost 400 units across 2024 and 2025, are currently at the final stage of assessment.

The Land Development Agency (LDA) was established with a focus on managing the State’s lands to develop new homes and regenerate underutilised sites. It has also been tasked with unlocking stalled, private, planning-consented developments in the shorter-term through Project Tosaigh, its market engagement initiative.

The LDA is targeting 8,000 new homes over the course of the Project Tosaigh initiative. They are currently on track to deliver 5,000 new homes for social housing, Cost Rental and Affordable Purchase to eligible households by end 2026. In excess of 2,500 social, affordable purchase or cost rental homes are already either delivered, contracted or approved to proceed within the LDA to date under Project Tosaigh's first phase.

To deliver the next phase of Project Tosaigh, a framework panel consisting of 15 of Ireland’s largest and most experienced home-builders to accelerate the delivery of affordable homes was announced on 12 June 2024. It is anticipated that the first projects from this framework panel will be agreed in the coming months