Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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271. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has calculated the proportion of households by income decile that are priced out of purchasing the average three-bed semi-detached house nationally and in each region, given a website's (details supplied) estimate the average price is €421,000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53108/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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272. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has verified the claim by the chairperson of the Land Development Agency that 70% of income earners are priced out of the housing market in terms of both rents and house prices; and if he will publish his Department's own affordability analysis. [53109/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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273. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the current ratio of average house price to average disposable household income in each county; the comparable figures in 2015 and 2020; and his Department's assessment of trends in affordability. [53110/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 271 to 273, inclusive, together.

My Department does not collect nor analyse income data in the manner requested.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is the official, independent and verifiable source of statistics about Ireland's society, economy and environment. The CSO's Residential property Price Index (RPPI) measures changes in average prices actually paid for residential property.

The RPPI is available on a monthly basis on the Central Statistics Office (CSO) website at: data.cso.ie/table/HPM09

The most recent RPPI suggests the increase in prices actually paid for homes has been dampening for some time, with rises moderating from 10.1% in August last year to 7.5% in July. The monthly rate of increase in residential house prices has fallen from 1.2% in July 2024 to 0.8% in July this year. A continued increase in supply will help dampen house price growth further and ease affordability challenges.

First-time buyer (FTB) activity remains robust, with 18,529 purchases by FTBs in the year to end July, up 6% year-on-year and up 41% on the year to July 2020. The latest Banking and Payment Federation report shows mortgage activity, particularly FTB activity, remains robust with more than 122,800 FTB mortgages drawn down in the five years to end Q2 2025, while rolling 12-month drawdowns for FTBs increased almost 6% year-on-year to almost 26,900.

Government is focused on continuing to bring forward measures that will increase the supply of new homes, which is key to meeting need, moderating price increases and address affordability in the market. In this regard, the recently revised National Planning Framework is a major step forward, and will help increase capacity and accelerate home building across the country, while the new Housing Activation Office will work to address barriers to the delivery of infrastructure projects needed to enable housing development.

The new Planning Design Standards for Apartments will allow greater flexibility vis-à-vis the size and mix of apartment types to help increase apartment viability, facilitate increased supply, and address affordability challenges.

A next call for expressions of interest under the Croí Cónaithe Cities scheme has been issued – the scheme will help activate the thousands of planning permissions for apartments in our cities.

Further measures to stimulate development activity will be considered in the context of the new national housing plan, which Government aims to publish in the coming weeks.