Government examining laws to 'protect first-time buyers'

The Government's housing policy has come under fire by opposition TDs, who claimed the market is dysfunctional as a result of the strategy to date.

Junior Housing Minister Peter Burke said steps will be taken to protect first-time buyers. Stock picture.

The Housing Minister is examining planning laws to "protect first-time buyers", the Dáil has been told.

Junior Housing Minister Peter Burke made the comment during a discussion on a Private Members' Bill from Sinn Féin on the rental sector. 

He was speaking in reference to numerous comments from TDs about the purchase of 135 three- and four-bed homes on an estate in Maynooth by Round Hill Capital. The developers of the Mullen Park estate in the Kildare town had been marketing the homes to private buyers since last year, with around 35 sold so far.

Mr Burke said that planning laws would be examined to protect first-time buyers from Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), which benefit from tax incentives which are unavailable to private buyers.

The bill, brought by the party's housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin, calls for an emergency three-year ban on rent increases in the private sector, a refundable tax credit for private rental tenants and an NCT-style certification for all rental properties.

A number of Sinn Féin TDs echoed Mr Ó Broin, with Matt Carthy saying that the dysfunction in the housing market was "government policy". Cork North Central TD Thomas Gould said that the Housing Minister was "in cuckoo land" for simply saying rents are "coming under pressure". 

Dáil debating SF motion Ending the Crisis in Private Rental Sector

🚨3 yr rent increase ban
🚨A months rent back in every renters pocket
🚨4000 affordable cost rental homes a year
🚨Tenancies of indefinite duration
🚨Minimum standards NCT

🆘Its time to give renters a break🆘 pic.twitter.com/zkAWXGfhFE

— Eoin Ó Broin (@EOBroin) May 5, 2021

However, Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien said that the proposal could have "unintended consequences" and pointed to Berlin, where rent freezes were recently overturned by a constitutional court.

His junior minister Peter Burke said that "actions will speak louder than words" when it comes to housing. He said that the Government will publish its Housing For All strategy in the summer.

He said that the Sinn Féin motion calls for 4,000 cost rental homes, but the Affordable Housing Bill he brought to Cabinet yesterday made provision for 440 such homes already.

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Labour's Duncan Smith said that Covid rent protections had lapsed for many and it was incongruous that people could be evicted a month sooner than they could leave their county.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said that single people "haven't got a chance" of owning homes, saying that the affordability measures announced by Mr O'Brien would not deliver any change in the market for middle-income earners. He said that a €450,000 cap, like that in Dublin City and Dun Laoghaire, would require salaries in excess of €100,000 per year.

His colleague Paul Murphy said that the only people who benefit from a lack of apartment compliance checks were "rack-renting slum landlords" and "that is who this government serves".