Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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274. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of second-hand homes currently available to purchase nationally; and the way in which this compares with the 2015-19 average cited by a website (details supplied); and his Department's strategy to increase second-hand stock availability. [53111/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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275. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his Department's projection of new housing completions for 2025, by local authority; and the way in which these compare with the underlying annual demand identified by the ESRI and the Housing Commission. [53112/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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276. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the average price of a three-bed semi-detached home in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford as of Quarter three 2025; the equivalent figure in 2020; and his assessment of the impact of these price increases on first-time buyers. [53113/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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277. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of housing-market transactions recorded in the past 12 months; and his Department's assessment of whether transaction volumes are consistent with a healthy and functioning housing market. [53114/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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280. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will commit to publishing an annual housing affordability report, benchmarking average house prices, average incomes, mortgage serviceability ratios, and availability of homes by region, to ensure transparency in policy-making. [53117/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 274 to 277, inclusive, and 280 together.

Continuing to increase the supply of new homes is key to meeting need and addressing many of the challenges currently facing the housing market. Increased supply will help moderate price increases, address affordability in the market, and help those aspiring to own their own home to realise this goal.

Supply has increased significantly in recent years. Some 140,000 new homes have been delivered since July 2020, with 92,400 of these delivered between 2022 and 2024 inclusive, exceeding the combined target for the period by 5,400 or so.

The most recent sectoral residential reports suggest that while supply of second-hand home remains constrained, there are tentative signs of recovery with each of the reports showing a year-on-year increase of second-hand homes for sale on their respective platforms.

Official data in respect of all residential dwelling property transactions are published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on a monthly basis and are available on its website at data.cso.ie/table/HPM02. Data are broken down by volume and value as well as by dwelling status (new or existing dwelling), by type of buyer (First-Time Buyer, Owner Occupier or Non-Occupier) and by county. Some 49,634 dwellings were purchased by household buyers at market prices in the 12 months to end July, a marginal rise on the 49,297 purchases in the same period last year, and up 24% and 11% in the same period in 2015 and 2019 respectively.

Some 38,589 existing dwellings were purchased by household buyers in the year to end July 2025, down almost 3% on the previous year. This figure represents an increase of 10% and 5% on the same period in 2015 and 2019 respectively.

A continued increase in supply will help dampen house price growth and ease affordability challenges. The most recent Residential Property Price Index, which measures the changes in average prices actually paid, suggests the increase in prices 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.

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.

My Department does not forecast housing completions for any given year.

Sectoral commentators are forecasting a wide range for new home completions this year, with published forecasts suggesting somewhere between 32,000 to 37,000 new homes might be delivered this year. These forecasts may fluctuate as the year progresses and a more certain picture will only emerge towards year-end.