Cheaper for State to build than pay rent aid

The cost to the State of paying landlords to house families is more than the money needed to build new homes, it has been claimed.

Figures released to Fianna Fáil show the State will spend over €844m on rent support this year, with average rents reaching €829 per month under housing assistance payments (HAP). These rent levels will be more costly than building a new home, after 21 years.

Fianna Fáil housing spokesman Darragh O’Brien looked at average monthly rents across various housing programmes and compared these to the cost of building homes. The average cost of building a new two-bedroom home nationally is €213,000.

After examining the details through parliamentary answers, Mr O’Brien accused Fine Gael of an “over-reliance on the private sector, funnelling billions into landlords rather than building”. The cost is evident in these figures, he said.

“Paying for rent is not cheaper and in just over two decades it will cost more to rent than it would have to build a new unit that actually adds to the housing stock and is in State ownership,” he said.

The short-term approach of Fine Gael will catch up on the State. We will be locked into expensive rental payments for decades, rather than building up our national housing stock.

Figures obtained by Mr O’Brien also show that the average monthly payments for rent supplements to landlords under the separate rental accommodation scheme amount to €625. After 28 years, these sums would pay for a new two-bed home, the party claims.

Average monthly costs of €757 on the social housing programme would also exceed the cost of a new home after 23 years, it claims.

The figures come as Sinn Féin is to push this week for a rent freeze, via legislation in the Dáil.

The party’s housing spokesman, Eoin Ó Broin, will move the bill during private members’ time tomorrow. He says that Government-sanctioned rent pressure zones, intended to limit landlord rates to 4% increaes, are not working.