ONLY 158 NEW social homes were delivered in the first three months of this year.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien today released the social and affordable housing delivery statistics for Quarter 1 of 2024.
The Government has a target of building 9,300 new social housing units in 2024, but only 158 were delivered in the first quarter of 2024.
A Department of Housing spokesperson said the “significant part” of new social housing builds traditionally occurs in the second half of the year.
Last year, 83% of new-build deliveries occurred in the second half of the year, and 67% arrived in Q4 – the government missed its new-build housing target by 1,010 last year.
In all, 720 new social homes were delivered in Q1 of 2024 – 158 new-build homes, 330 acquisitions and 232 homes delivered through leasing programmes.
It comes as the government said that a “record” 32,121 new homes started construction in first five months of this year.
The figures shows that 52,000 new homes were started in the 12 months leading up to May 2024.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said it will surpass the targets for this year for social and affordable housing as set out in the Housing For All plan.
The minister pledged that over 6,000 affordable homes will be delivered by the end of year.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said: “We are confident to say that we will exceed our output targets for 2024 and this indeed will be the third year in a row that we have exceeded the target.
“This is good progress, but it also provides a good platform from which we can further scale up our delivery to meet future demand.”
O’Brien also said that legislation brought in to prevent the bulk buying of homes by investment funds has led to 60,000 homes being protected for owner-occupier or single purchaser.
“What we’ve seen in a couple of incidents is legacy issues prior to the changing of that legislation,” he added.
“Unquestionably we have levelled the playing pitch for first time buyers, that’s why we are seeing those numbers increase substantially.
“We still need investment in the areas where we want it, particularly apartment developments.”
With government stating that supply is the answer, The Journal asked the Taoiseach today about when he thinks house prices will begin to fall back.
Harris said the government acknowledges that there is a “real affordability challenge for many people”, which is why by “unprecedented level of interventions” are being rolled out.
“When will we see things begin to level out a bit is always hard to predict precisely, but I do think based on what we see from ESRI reports, Housing Commission [reports], our own data and intelligence, I think we have quite a way to go,” said the Taoiseach, who added that there is “pent up demand” for houses.
The latest Construction Status Report shows that 9,179 social homes were on site at the end of March, with an additional 15,848 homes at design and tender stage.
In Quarter 1 of 2024, 121 new construction schemes, equating to 2,595 homes, were added to the housing pipeline.
In all last year, 11,939 social houses were delivered, through a mix of new-builds (8,110), acquisitions (1,830), and leasing (1,999).
However, this was short of the target of 13,130 social houses to be delivered through these channels.
O’Brien said it is “clear to see that record investment under Housing for All is bearing fruit in a robust delivery pipeline and a strong momentum is growing”.
However, Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said O’Brien is “working overtime to make a bad situation look positive”.
“When you pull away the spin and misdirection, the facts speak for themselves,” said Ó Broin.
“Buried in the fine print of today’s report, we can see that the government is, as usual, way behind these targets.
“As long as this government is in power, there will be no real progress on housing.”
Labour also criticised the figures and leader Ivana Bacik said it appears that the Government has “given up on addressing the root causes of the housing crisis”.
“This Government is clearly going to fail abjectly in delivering on its housing commitments,” said Bacik.
“The delivery of new homes remains far too slow. Indeed, the Housing Commission estimates a housing deficit ranging from 212,500 to 256,000 homes as it stands.”
That report from the Government-appointed Housing Commission skewered Government policy and said that only a “radical strategic reset of housing policy will work” to address chronic issues in Ireland.
Bacik said the housing crisis “has been created by years of failure by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to implement policies that would see increased supply of new homes” and that the crisis they created “is being allowed to spiral”.
Elsewhere, Social Democrats housing spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan said the 158 new-build social homes delivered is a “drop in the ocean of what is needed and clearly not on track to meet the 2024 target of 9,300 homes”.
“These figures provide further evidence that this Government, its rotating cast of Taoisigh and its Minister for Housing are incapable of delivering homes at the scale that is needed,” he added.
“The glacial pace of social and affordable housing delivery is locking a generation out of housing,” said O’Callaghan.
“A general election, a new Government and a new housing plan is now the only way of turning the tide on this crisis.”
With reporting by Christina Finn
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