Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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208. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the current estimate for housing completions in 2025 and 2026; the variance between those estimates and the published Housing for All targets; the latest national and regional house-price-to-earnings ratios; and his Department’s assessment of the impact of non-indexation of the standard rate income-tax band on affordability for first-time buyers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55976/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Increasing the supply of new homes is key to meeting need and addressing many of the challenges currently facing the housing market. A continued increase in supply will help dampen house price growth further and ease affordability challenges.

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.

While my Department does not forecast new home completions in any year, new dwelling completions data are published by the CSO on a quarterly basis and are available at: .

Recent data show some 15,141 new homes completed in the first half of this year, up 20% year-on-year and the highest H1 completions figure since the data series began in 2011. 32,717 new homes completed in the 12 months ending Q2 2025 an increase of 5% on the same period last year and the highest rolling 12-month completions since the data series began. As such, we expect delivery in 2025 to sustain the recent uplift in supply.

My Department does not collect nor analyse income data in the manner requested. Notwithstanding, the data shows that 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 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 and is currently under assessment – 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.