Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 February 2024
64. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of affordable homes delivered in 2023 via the affordable housing fund, the cost rental equity loan and the Land Development Agency's Project Tosaigh; and his views on the rising rents and house prices under these schemes. [7244/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraIs the Minister in a position yet to tell us about the final delivery of social new build and affordable housing under the three affordable housing schemes were for last year? If not, can he indicate if he believes the targets set out in his housing plan will be met on those four crucial schemes?
As the Deputy is aware, affordability is at the heart of Housing for All. Since its launch, over 3,800 affordable homes have been delivered, supported by the affordable housing fund, the cost rental equity loan, Project Tosaigh and the first home scheme. This momentum will continue as the pipeline of affordable housing delivery is developed and expanded by our delivery partners, including local authorities, the approved housing bodies, the LDA, and the first home scheme. Data for affordable housing delivery is published on a quarterly basis, similar to social housing delivery. This data is published up to the third quarter of 2023 and is available on my Department's website.
We had very strong delivery in the last quarter as we did in the previous year. Local authorities are in the process of systematically collating information on delivery of social, affordable purchase and cost rental homes in their administrative areas, including returns for AHBs and the LDA, for the fourth quarter of 2023. This data is currently being verified. I sought an update yesterday. Not all the data is in but when it is it will be verified. I expect that the Department will be in a position to report on delivery of affordable and social housing for 2023 by the end of quarter 1, as we have done before.
The affordable housing fund enables local authorities to make homes available on a shared equity basis, with purchase prices at least 15% below market rates. Cost rental, because of the changes we made on the cost rental equity loan, has seen a substantial increase in applications and in delivery. We are awaiting all the returns from the 31 local authorities or AHB partners. When we have them and verified, we will publish them. I expect they will show a significant increase on the previous year. I do not even have preliminary data so I do not want to be accused of misleading the House again. But the Deputy can be assured that when they are verified that we will publish them and I am sure the Deputy will have his views on them at the appropriate time.
In fact the figures for delivery under the genuine affordable housing schemes are much worse than the number the Minister quoted here. In his first year as Minister, no affordable purchase homes were delivered and only 65 cost-rental homes. In 2022, there were only 323 genuinely affordable homes to purchase delivered and just under 700 cost-rental homes. The Minister is right that we do not have the full data yet and I look forward to seeing it but by the end of the third quarter, there were only 159 affordable purchase homes and only 56 cost rental, although, in fairness, the LDA brought on stream several hundred cost rentals by the end of the year and I assume they will be in the numbers.
The problem is not only are the Minister’s targets too low but he is missing them. I suspect, and we will debate this when we get the final figures, that he will not have met his figures for affordable purchase or affordable cost rental through AHBs or the Land Development Agency at the end of this year. That will be the third year as Minister that he has missed those crucial targets. Hiding behind first home scheme approvals to massage the figures does not get away from the fact that the Minister is not delivering.
No one is massaging figures at all. Let me give exact figures as I regularly do. Take the affordable housing fund. We have approved 4,300 affordable purchase homes through that fund across 21 local authorities, involving over €370 million in grant aid. I will give just three examples. Cois Farraige in Blackrock, County Louth, where there are three-bedroom homes from €305,000. In Baltinglass, County Wicklow, which I had the pleasure of visiting, its really good multi-tenure scheme has three-bedroom homes from €260,000. Cluain Ard, Cobh, County Cork has two- and three-bedroom homes from €215,000. People are buying these homes now. It is happening. The first home shared equity is a really important support. There have been over 8,300 registrations for that scheme. Even though the Deputy continually rails against it, the public is engaging with it. People who are renting or living with their folks are now able to buy their home with direct assistance from the State, including using things like the help-to-buy grant, €30,000 of their own tax back in their pocket, which Sinn Féin has said it will abolish.
The problem is that the Minister keeps missing his target. For example, he did not meet his affordable purchase or cost-rental targets last year. He will not meet them this year. On the first homes scheme, which the Minister is correct that I oppose, the Minister missed his targets by 50% last year and by even more the year before. But also, increasingly the homes he is talking about are not affordable. I have the details of affordable housing fund purchases in my constituency. The full price after the shared equity has to be paid back, is €407,000 to €435,000. That is the Minister’s definition of affordable homes. In fact, you have to have an income of between €85,000 and €100,000 to get into one of these properties. If you look at the LDA’s cost rental, again in my own constituency, in City West, the rents are between €1,400 and €1,800 for a one-bedroom to a three-bedroom home. You would need a gross salary of between €75,000 to €100,000 to be eligible for those. Increasingly, the very groups of people for whom affordable purchase and affordable rental were designed are locked out. The Minister is not delivering enough. It is too expensive. Again, there is more failure to deliver.
Again the Deputy will try to use the figures for his own narrative. The equity that the local authorities hold on behalf of the State does not have to be paid back and no interest is charged on that either.
It is paid back in the end.
At the very end.
Either by their children, as a penalty, or when they sell. They pay the full price.
A Leas-Cheann Comhairle-----
Deputy, please.
Also, this Government legislated for and brought forward cost rental in the Affordable Housing Act and it has changed the cost rental equity loan to ensure more and more cost rental properties are being delivered. This did not exist before this Government came in either. They are a minimum of 25% below market and provide secure tenure for people. They are extremely popular for people out there. Do not interrupt again.
And very unaffordable.
Deputy, please.
Look.
Deputy please, you are eating into the Minister’s time.
Every cost-rental scheme has been substantially oversubscribed. We have increased the net income limits. The Deputy quoted gross income limits. The net income limits for Dublin are €66,000 and €59,000 in the rest of the country. It is an extremely popular form of tenure that is actually working. I know that disappoints the Deputy.
