Housing for All E-Zine January 2024
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
News & updates from the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage
Welcome to this month's edition of the Housing for All E-zine which brings you all the news and progress on Housing for All, the Government's housing plan to 2030.
32,695 new homes completed in 2023, largest delivery in 15 years
On 25 January, the CSO published its Q4 2023 statistics for housing completions. The information showed that:
To coincide with this announcement, the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the Minister for Housing published the latest Housing for All quarterly update which highlighted key indicators emphasising the continued momentum behind Housing for All:?
Record number of new homes commenced in 2023
Last year was also a bumper one for housing commencements.
On 18 January, commencement data for December showed that construction had started on almost 33,000 new homes in 2023.
In total:
Work starts on almost 2,000 new Dublin homes
On 18 December, Minister O'Brien turned the sod to mark the start of construction of almost 2,000 new homes in two Dublin locations.
First sod turned on over 1,000 homes in O’Devaney Gardens redevelopment
Minister O'Brien helped turn the first sod on the O’Devaney Gardens redevelopment which will deliver 1,044 new homes in the heart of Dublin city.
When complete, 50% of the A-rated homes will be delivered to Dublin City Council for social and affordable housing.
First phase of construction of over 850 new homes at Oscar Traynor Woods in Coolock
Minister O'Brien also turned the sod at a site being developed by Dublin City Council and Glenveagh Properties plc on the Oscar Traynor Road?in Coolock.
Construction has now commenced on 850 new homes, which will deliver?40% social.?40% cost rental and??20% affordable home.
Latest Euroconstruct report shows Ireland's construction growth bucking European trends
In December, the latest report from independent construction market forecasting network, Euroconstruct found that construction output in Ireland is likely to expand by 4.4% in 2024 which will be the strongest rate of growth among 19 European countries analysed.
Euroscontruct member, Annette Hughes said:
"In what is a very challenging period for construction activity across Europe, Ireland is bucking the trend with strong growth forecast over the next number of years, particularly in the residential and civil engineering sectors."
More social and affordable homes becoming available
A central pillar of Housing for All is to increase delivery of different forms of housing to meet different housing needs. This includes?new homes to buy or rent at below market rates as well as social homes.? New cost rental and affordable housing developments have been launched recently with others opening for application shortly.?
New cost rental and social homes delivered in?12-month timeframe
Minister O'Brien was in Kilternan, Co Dublin on Monday to officially open the first tranche of new cost rental and social homes in the Kilternan Woods development.
Remarkably, it was almost one year to the day that Minister O'Brien had previously?visited the site to see plans for the new homes.
This development is delivering 72 cost rental and 22 social homes in association with Tuath Housing Association and? Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council
For the cost rental homes, rates will be 33% below market value for the area.?
领英推荐
RTE's "Room to Improve" Showcases Vacant Property Grant as successful grant applications exceed 3,000
On consecutive episodes this month, RTE 's popular house renovation series "Room to Improve" showcased two projects, one in Kilkenny, the other in Tipperary, which both benefitted from receiving the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant.?
The Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant is a payment you can get if you are turning a vacant house or building into your permanent home or a rental property.?A grant of up to €70,000 is available.
The latest statistics for Q4 2023 show that to date,?there have been 3,166 successful applications for the grant.?
Almost 2,500 vacant social homes returned to active use in 2023
Figures showing that nearly 2,500 vacant social homes were brought back into use last year were published on 28 January.?
Making more efficient use of existing housing stock is a key action of Housing for All plan. The Voids Programme supports local authorities in preparing vacant homes for re-letting and builds on the ongoing work to tackle vacancy and dereliction in order?to bring vacant properties into re-use for housing.
Plans for 500 student accommodation beds unveiled
A new long term policy to develop student accommodation?is a key deliverable under Housing for All.
So, on 19 January at an event at Dublin City University (DCU), Ministers O'Brien, Harris and Donohue?viewed plans for 521 new student?beds in DCU and Maynooth University. Both projects?go to construction in the coming months.
First Home Scheme helps over 1,200 people become homeowners
The First Home Scheme, a €400m fund set up to help first-time buyers to bridge the gap between their mortgage, deposit and the price of a new home published its?2023 end of year updated this month.?
The report shows a continued strong interest in the scheme with:
Tenders sought for construction on local authority land
Housing in Westmeath, Meath, Kilkenny and surrounding counties has?received a boost to its future supply of social homes with the recent launch of a call to building contractors to tender for ‘design and build’ social homes on local authority lands.?
This call is linked to the Accelerated Delivery Programme involving Local Authorities’ delivery of social housing using design & build and incorporating Modern Methods of Construction.
There is still a live opportunity in Meath for building contractors to embrace innovation by answering a call (deadline 8 February) to tender for the construction of ‘design and build’ social homes on designated local authority land.
New Residential Development and Compact Settlement Guidelines published
On 15 January, Minister O’Brien along with?the Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell published the "Sustainable Residential Development and Compact Settlements Guidelines."
The guidelines:
The Housing for All webpage contains information on the plan, including a detailed outline of the objectives and actions under each of the plan's pathways.
Quarterly progress reports set out performance to-date against the targets and actions set out in the plan in a clear and comprehensible way.
Director @ PM Renovations ltd | Property Developer, Investor | ￡4.5m property portfolio in 5 years
9 个月There has been great progress with housing in 2023 in Ireland and so much more work to be done. The article states just over 3,000 vacant property refurbishment grants were approved in 2023’ how about highlighting how many where actually paid out…. Less then 50 to-date, more work needs to be done, further work needs to be done to understand the issue on why so few are completing, couple of reasons I have come across are: 1. people don’t have the funds to do the works upfront, look at stages payments, 2. local housing needs criteria in planning requirements has stop normal people putting extension or even septic tanks into vacant properties. 3. Having a robust process that all council can follow setting timescales on decisions made by councils on grants and planning