Eoin Ó Broin
Question:196. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of affordable rental homes that will be completed by the end of 2021 via the cost rental equity loan. [49818/21]
View answerTuesday, 12 October 2021
Questions (196, 197)
Eoin Ó Broin
Question:197. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of affordable rental homes that will be completed by the end of 2021 via the serviced sites fund and the affordable housing funding scheme. [49819/21]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 196 and 197 together.
Budget 2021 allocated €35m for a new Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) scheme, under which the Government is making loans to Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) on favourable terms, for up to 30% of the capital cost of new homes for Cost Rental. Following a Call for Proposals from AHBs in December 2020, a rigorous assessment process was undertaken by my Department and the Housing Agency.
In February 2021, I announced approval-in-principle for the CREL financing of 390 new homes at eight sites across Ireland this year, to be owned, managed and maintained by the Clúid, Respond and Tuath AHBs. These projects are located in Dublin, the surrounding Greater Dublin Area and Cork City, with each development delivering cost-covering rents for homes on average at least 25% below comparable open market prices.
In total, approximately 115 Cost Rental homes will be delivered by end 2021. The first of these which were CREL-financed homes, have been delivered by the Clúid AHB at Taylor Hill, Balbriggan, where tenants moved in to their new homes at the end of August. The cost-covering rents for these Taylor Hill homes are averaging 38% below comparable open-market prices in the area, ranging from €935 per month for a two-bed terraced house to €1,150 for a four-bed detached house. The Clúid AHB owns, manages and maintains the 25 homes, which they acquired with the assistance of a €2.4m CREL loan. A further 50 Cost Rental apartments are due for completion shortly at Enniskerry Road, for which tenancy applications have already been accepted.
Delivery of CREL homes is subject to construction schedules, which, together with housing projects more generally, were impacted by COVID delays at the beginning of this year. The initial timeframes submitted by AHBs were based on all efforts being made to deliver the homes as soon as possible. As AHBs sought to use CREL funding to allow developers to construct homes that may otherwise not have been delivered, the commencement of construction on these specific units was, in most instances, not possible until the lifting of relevant COVID restrictions.
The revised timeframes for delivery under the first CREL call are currently being collated. Based on delivery estimations from the relevant AHBs, a further estimated 134 additional Cost Rental homes under CREL 1 call will be in place by end Q1 2021. The remaining CREL homes will come on stream by Q4 2022.
Affordable homes on local authority land are to be made available through the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF), previously known as the Serviced Sites Fund (SSF). Currently, 40 AHF projects, across 14 local authorities, have received approval in principle and will assist in the delivery of just over 4,200 affordable homes to buy or to rent.
The pilot Cost Rental development at Enniskerry Road in Dún Laoghaire, which has benefitted from AHF subvention, will see cost-covering rents for 50 two-bedroom apartments of €1,200 per month, in an area where comparable market rents are c. €2,000 per month. The first affordable purchase homes supported by AHF funding, will be delivered in Quarter 4 of 2021 at Boherboy Road, Cork City.
Just one year after coming in to office, this Government had introduced what is a brand new form of tenure in Cost Rental. It has placed Cost Rental on a statutory basis through the provisions of the Affordable Housing Act 2021, the first ever stand-alone affordable housing legislation in the State. It has established administrative provisions and provided the funds which have seen the first tenants already in long-term and secure homes, at up to 50% of the comparable market cost.
The Government recently confirmed plans to significantly increase delivery and the Housing for All Strategy is the most ambitious housing plan in the history of the State, backed up by an unprecedented financial commitment in excess of €4bn per annum. Over the period 2021 to 2030, it is intended that approximately 18,000 Cost Rental homes will be delivered by Local Authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and the Land Development Agency. In building to this scale and with an average of 2,000 Cost Rental Units per year, the State will provide certain focused funding supports to help delivery partners to provide rental homes, targeting affordable rents at levels in the order of 25% below market rents.
Question No. 197 answered with Question No. 196.