Housing for All plan will aim to reduce house prices in Dublin

Government seeks to reach target of €250k to €325k homes in the capital as part of its plan to address Ireland's housing crisis

Speaking at today's sod-turning at a new wastewater treatment plant in Wicklow, Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien dubbed the new policy Ireland's first fully-funded housing announcement. 

The Government's Housing for All plan will aim to reduce house purchase prices in Dublin to between €250,000 and €325,000 as part of a drive to improve affordability as well as supply. 

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien will seek full Cabinet approval of his Housing For All strategy on Thursday morning, sources said, with a full launch likely on Thursday afternoon. It comes after a lengthy meeting of the Cabinet subcommittee on housing today.  

The plan was originally intended to come before Cabinet for sign-off in July, but was delayed for a number of months after internal wrangling between ministers on targets and financing.

'Housing must be matched by infrastructure' 

It is understood that some ministers questioned the logic of huge housing budgets without the infrastructure spending to match, while concern was raised at the achievability of the plan's targets. It sets out a target of building 33,000 homes each year by 2025, a major increase on the 21,500 built in 2019. 

Sources say that those issues have been addressed and the plan has the full support of Cabinet, with the financing of the €12bn-per-year plan now agreed.

The five-year plan will overhaul much of the foundation of the State's approach to building houses and acquiring land, sources said. It includes provision for new powers and money for local authorities to build new homes, for 1,400 social homes to be transferred from Nama to state bodies, and sweeping powers for the Land Development Agency.

Addressing both supply and affordability 

All of this comes in an attempt by the Government to tackle not just the supply of housing, but its affordability. 

According to sources, the Government’s objective is to achieve purchase prices in the range of €250,000 to €325,000 in Dublin.

Speaking at the sod-turning at a new wastewater treatment plant in Wicklow today, Mr O'Brien said that key infrastructure such as that plant would be provided for under Housing For All. He said that it was the first "fully-funded" housing announcement in the State's history, and would "deliver tens of thousands of homes" over the coming years.

Vacant sites and the €500m Croí Cónaithe fund

There will also be a major focus on revitalising town centres and on the development of towns and villages throughout the country. 

This will include the renovation of over-the-shop units in city and town centres, many of which have fallen into vacancy in recent years. 

A €500m fund, known as Croí Cónaithe, is to be established to help developers to restore and revive cities and towns across the country.

In an effort to access vacant church holdings, Mr O'Brien wrote to the Archbishop of Armagh and Catholic Primate of All Ireland Eamon Martin to ask him to identify vacant land or buildings which could be used.

Retired bishop: Church land belongs to the people

 The retired Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, has backed his request, saying that the Church should be doing everything it could to help address the housing crisis.

Speaking on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny Show, the retired bishop said he believed that Church land is not private property: 

I would have always had the attitude that Church land is not private property. Church land is land belonging to the people — the people involved in the Church.

“It is not belonging to the bishop or parish priests or that sort of thing. It is the people’s land and I think that anything the Church can do to help the housing situation I think it should be there and trying to do it.”

However, Sinn Féin's housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said that the idea was "bizarre".