Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 May 2021
101. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his plans for an affordable housing scheme outside of Dublin and for cost-rental accommodation in counties Laois and Offaly. [22867/21]
View answerThis Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that affordable, quality housing solutions are available to everyone in Irish society and this is reflected in the Programme for Government "Our Shared Future".
I am currently progressing two affordable purchase schemes. The fisrt of these entails the delivery of affordable homes by local authorities. To support this, under the Serviced Sites Fund, €310 million has been allocated to provide infrastructure to support the delivery of more affordable homes on local authority lands. With a maximum of €50,000 funding available per home, at least 6,200 more affordable homes, to buy or rent, can be facilitated. To date, Serviced Sites Funding of €198 million has been approved in principle in support of 39 projects in 14 local authority areas, which will assist in the delivery of over 4,200 affordable homes. All Serviced Sites Fund proposals are assessed on the basis of economic analyses submitted by local authorities, which are required to verify local affordability challenges, project viability, and the ability to deliver affordable homes with at least a 10% discount on open market values.
Whilst an application for Serviced Sites funding has not been made by Laois or Offaly County Councils to date, it is open to Councils to do so should they identify an affordable housing challenge and the viability to deliver homes against the above-mentioned criteria.
Separately, a new National Affordable Purchases Shared Equity scheme is currently being designed for private developments. My intention is that this measure will be available nationally. It will help bridge the gap, by means of an equity stake purchased by the State, between the maximum mortgage available to eligible households and the price of the new home they wish to buy. The objective of the scheme will be to increase housing supply by activating viable planning permissions and to enable First Time Buyers to buy a new home at a price they can afford.
In relation to Cost Rental, a range of work is ongoing to deliver this new form of housing. My Department is utilising the expertise of Local Authorities, the Land Development Agency (LDA), and the Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to deliver projects in a variety of ways, in order to prove the concept of this new sector. This is in conjunction with the policy development for the sector that is set out in the forthcoming Affordable Housing Bill.
Cost Rental will be informed by National Planning Framework priorities. It will be focused, at least initially, in densely populated urban areas where rental affordability pressures are particularly acute and where State resources can have the biggest impact. It is important that the State targets its affordability measures towards the parts of the country that are experiencing the most extreme affordability challenges.
One of the main sources of State funding for Cost Rental homes is the new Cost Rental Equity Loan scheme, which was allocated €35m in funding in Budget 2021. It gives AHBs access to Government loans on favourable terms to cover up to 30% of the cost of new Cost Rental homes. Following the detailed assessment of submitted proposals, approval was granted for the funding this year of 390 new Cost Rental homes, located in Dublin, Kildare, and Cork. Cost-covering rents for these homes will be at least 25% below comparable open market prices. Further details of these homes, including precise locations, will be published when the successful AHBs have completed necessary commercial arrangements. I intend seeking an expansion to this scheme through the review of the National Development Plan and the Budgetary process, in order to give AHBs certainty of funding on a multi-annual basis and allow them to plan developments into the longer term.
The detailed provisions to operationalise each of the schemes referred to above will be contained within a new housing Bill which I intended to bring to the Oireachtas in the very near future to allow their commencement this year.
Both the Help to Buy and the Rebuilding Ireland Homeloan remain available to eligible purchasers to make the cost of housing more affordable.
