Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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630. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government in view of continued elevated cost-of-living pressures, specifically high housing costs, rental inflation and utility bills, and noting commentary that households in regions like Cork are increasingly squeezed: if his Department has compiled disaggregated data for Cork/Munster on housing cost inflation in 2025; the regionally-targeted policy measures or subsidies planned (transport, energy efficiency, rental supports) for the 2026 Budget to soften cost burdens for households and SMEs; and the means by which his Department will evaluate the impact of such cost relief programmes on regional competitiveness and social inclusion. [61819/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Central Statistics Office (CSO) publish the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) on a monthly basis on it's website at: , data is disaggregated nationally by type of residential property and house price indices are also provided for seven regions outside of Dublin including the South-West (Cork and Kerry).

Government is focused on increasing the national housing stock and ensuring a suitable range of housing, across tenure types, is available to all. The Programme for Government commits to building on the successes of Housing for All and ramping up supply to deliver over 300,000 homes between 2025 and 2030.

Supply has increased significantly in recent years. Almost 150,000 new homes have been delivered since July 2020, with 92,300 of these delivered between 2022 and 2024 inclusive, exceeding the combined target for the period by 5,300 or so.

Government continues to bring forward measures to help build upon the uplift in supply and help dampen house price growth and ease affordability challenges across the country. The recently revised National Planning Framework is a major step forward in this regard, while the new Housing Activation Office will work to address barriers to the delivery of infrastructure projects needed to enable housing development.

Measures such as the Local Authority Home Loan, the Local Authority Purchase and Renovation Scheme, the Help to Buy Incentive, First Home Scheme and the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant are also available to help make home ownership more affordable.

Budget 2026 included a suite of taxation measures aimed at stimulating the supply of new apartments including a reduced VAT rate on the sale of new apartments and an enhanced Corporation Tax deduction for apartment construction costs.

The Croí Cónaithe Cities scheme, launched in 2022, supports the building of apartments for owner-occupiers in our cities by providing funding to bridge the gap between the delivery cost and the market price. A fourth call for expressions of interest under the Croí Cónaithe Cities scheme was issued over the summer with submitted schemes now currently being assessed– the scheme will help activate the thousands of planning permissions for apartments in our cities.

Government also agreed to amend the rent pressure zone framework, which among other things will help stimulate increased development of apartments over the longer-term.

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.

The Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025 was approved, published and enacted before the summer recess to deal with expiring planning permissions and to encourage activation of housing.

An enhanced LDA is working to deliver more private housing as well as social, affordable and cost rental.

Further measures to stimulate development activity will be considered in the forthcoming new national housing plan.