Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 April 2023
198. Deputy John Paul Phelan asked the Minister for Finance the specific means through which his Department intends to achieve its objective of “establishing a deeper and more robust domestic capital markets environment for homebuilding” as per Parliamentary Question No. 139 of 30 March 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18779/23]
Amharc ar fhreagra199. Deputy John Paul Phelan asked the Minister for Finance what contingency measures are in place to ensure capital is made available for homebuilding in the event that institutional investors continue to leave the Irish market; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18780/23]
Amharc ar fhreagra200. Deputy John Paul Phelan asked the Minister for Finance the availability of public funds to bridge any gap between funds required and funds invested by private investors for home building in the event that institutional investors continue to leave the Irish market; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18781/23]
Amharc ar fhreagra202. Deputy John Paul Phelan asked the Minister for Finance if, in the event that the Government increases the targets for housing delivery, the funding for same that would be expected to come from public or private capital sources; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18783/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 198 to 200, inclusive, and 202 together.
As the Deputy will be aware, the Housing for All plan aims to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 homes per year, with an estimated development funding requirement of approximately €13.5 million per annum. This development funding will comprise both debt and equity, and will be deployed from a number of sources including direct State expenditure, State-supported funding sources and both domestic and international private capital sources.
The Housing for All Investment Workstream was established to support the delivery of the Government’s Housing for All plan and a key commitment of the Investment Workstream has been to advance understanding of the funding landscape for residential development in Ireland.
To support this objective, the Investment Workstream has engaged with public and private funding partners and has also commissioned a report on the drivers of the cost and availability of finance for residential development, to also include data and commentary on the funding landscape.
The report found that there is reasonable availability of debt and equity for viable residential development and the most significant factor impacting on the availability of capital for residential development is the underlying viability of projects. Other factors such as planning, infrastructure requirements, location, scale and tenure type will also impact the availability of funding.
The report found that in the past 12 months, the residential development sector has seen significant and worsening viability challenges which have, in particular, impacted high density apartment development. Therefore, supporting the viability of developments will be an important factor in achieving the Government’s Housing for All targets, and in turn will support access to funding from all sources, which will continue to be available and deployed to viable residential development projects.
Under the Housing for All Action Plan Update published in November 2022, the Department of Finance, through the HFA Investment Workstream, committed to assessing the findings and recommendations arising from the report and agreeing a set of actions for implementation. The outputs from this work will continue to be advanced through the Housing for All Investment Workstream.
