New plan will see a 'massive expansion' for State's role in housing

New plan promises 'a real chance' for squeezed middle to buy their own home and measures to improve renters' security

Writing in the foreword to the new document, Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien said Housing For All will offer 'a helping hand to those struggling to make ends meet'. File Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

The Government has launched its flagship programme for tackling the housing crisis, which pledges to end homelessness by 2030.

Housing For All will see €20 billion committed to build 160,000 homes over the coming five years in an attempt to tackle the crises of affordability and supply.

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In the foreword to the document, Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien calls it "a massive expansion in the role of the State in providing affordable homes for purchase and rent": 

The scale is enormous. We effectively need to double output in the next five years compared to the last five. 

"Achieving the aims of this 2030 Plan can only happen with a whole-of-Government approach, delivered in partnership and collaboration with other State bodies, the private sector and the community and voluntary sector.

"This plan will work. It will give the squeezed middle starting out in life a real chance to buy their own home. It will give a helping hand to those struggling to make ends meet. It will work towards ending homelessness by 2030."

The 160-page document commits to build 300,000 houses before the end of the decade, comprising 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable homes to purchase, 18,000 cost-rental homes, and 156,000 private purchase or rental homes.

The Government wants to reach 33,000 homes built per year by 2025 — that is 12,000 more than the total built in 2019, the last full year before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

That will work out yearly as 10,000 social, 4,000 affordable purchase (including 2,000 homes under the shared equity scheme up to 2025), 2,000 cost-rental, and 17,000 private homes.

The plan is based on four pathways which are:

1. Support homeownership and increase affordability;

2. Eradicate homelessness, increase social housing delivery and support social inclusion;

3. Increase new housing supply;

4. Address vacancy and make efficient use of existing stock.

In the Housing For All plan, the Government is committing to build 300,000 homes before the end of the decade. File Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

• 4,000 affordable purchase homes on average every year; 
• A new local authority-led affordable purchase scheme, targeting average prices of €250,000; 
• A new first home shared equity scheme for private developments; 
• A reformed local authority home loan; 
• An ‘owner-occupier guarantee’ in housing developments to secure homes exclusively for first-time buyers and other owner-occupiers; 
• 20% of all developments set aside for affordable and social housing. 

Renters:

For renters it promises:

• An average of 2,000 new cost rental homes every year with rents targeted at least 25% below market level; 
• Extended rent pressure zones to 2024 and rents linked to the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices;
• New short-term lettings regulation through a Fáilte Ireland registration system;
• Indefinite tenancies to strengthen security for renters;
• Minimum Building Energy Rating standards for private rental dwellings;
• Upfront deposit and rent payments capped at two months value.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the plan was "the most ambitious programme of social and affordable housing delivery in the history of the State": 

Few things are more fundamental to us than having somewhere to live. 

"Through this policy, the Government is demonstrating its commitment to build the required amount of housing, of different tenures, to a high standard, and in the right location, for people of all circumstances.

There has been some criticism, however, of the number of private homes to be used, with questions raised on how the Government can guarantee that these will be built.