Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 May 2020
1223. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the number of housing units purchased by local authorities in 2018, 2019 and to date in 2020, by county in Leinster; the average price per unit purchased by local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4036/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department publishes statistics on the delivery of social housing on a quarterly basis, including the total number of acquisitions provided for social housing. This data is provided by the 31 local authorities as the lead delivery agents and then validated by my Department and tracked against overall targets.
Acquisitions may be delivered through a variety of mechanisms:
- Local authorities directly purchasing homes;
- Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) purchasing homes for allocation to households on local authority waiting lists through either the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) or the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS); and
- The Housing Agency purchasing homes through the €70m revolving fund which are then routed via AHBs for allocation to households on local authority waiting lists'
The latest statistics published cover the period up to Quarter 3 2019 and are available on my Department's website at the following link:
https://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision .
Data in relation to quarter 4 social housing delivery is currently being validated by my Department and will be published shortly. The data is broken down by local authority, published in excel format and it is accordingly possible to isolate activity in specific local authority areas.
In relation to the average price per unit, this is dependent on a range of factors, including unit location, unit type, unit size and also the type of funding mechanism used. Under the Spending Review process, which aims to improve how public expenditure is allocated across all areas of Government, a detailed analysis of acquisition unit costs was undertaken in 2019 by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and is available at the following weblink: https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/5915ad-spending-review/ . The findings of the review showed that the average purchase price for units acquired by local authorities in 2018 was just under €190,000. A comparable figure for 2019 is not yet available.
