Brian Stanley on Housing Crisis: Urgent Call for State Housing Bond
Brian Stanley spoke about a deepening housing crisis, saying house prices, rents and homelessness have skyrocketed and calling for emergency state measures. He urged the government to scale up cost rental, create a state housing bond and make finance available to small builders.
Brian Stanley highlighted that house prices have risen 11.6% and average rents across the state are €1,956 per month, 43% higher than in 2020. He said homelessness has also surged, citing 51 people homeless in Leish in February, and warned that new home completions were down by 10,000 compared with election promises.
He pointed to 143,000 people on social housing waiting lists and quoted the Housing Commission's estimate of a 235,000 overall housing shortage. He stressed tens of thousands of households earning between €35,000 and €60,000 are excluded from social housing and unable to access mortgages or local authority loans, leaving many at risk of becoming long-term private renters.
Brian Stanley called for emergency measures to create a state housing bond and urged use of credit union deposits, which he said could total around €160 billion, to fund affordable-to-buy, cost rental and social housing schemes. He argued the credit unions' savings could be mobilised for delivery of new supply.
He urged low-interest finance for small builders to deliver schemes in small towns such as Mount Rath, Rathdowney, Mount Melik, Port Arlington, Port Leash, Great Cullen and Ballylinen. He also raised the Kennedy Report from 1973 and Judge Kenny's recommendations on keeping land prices down, including limiting development land values relative to agricultural land and imposing a windfall tax on development profits.
Brian Stanley proposed mass-producing between eight and ten standard house plans for different household needs and using them across local authorities to cut architectural fees and speed delivery. He cited architectural fees of 10-15% and urged ministers to adopt standard designs to reduce costs, speed up building and increase affordable and cost-rental supply.
Rising prices, rents and homelessness
Brian Stanley highlighted that house prices have risen 11.6% and average rents across the state are €1,956 per month, 43% higher than in 2020. He said homelessness has also surged, citing 51 people homeless in Leish in February, and warned that new home completions were down by 10,000 compared with election promises.
Waiting lists and the shortage of homes
He pointed to 143,000 people on social housing waiting lists and quoted the Housing Commission's estimate of a 235,000 overall housing shortage. He stressed tens of thousands of households earning between €35,000 and €60,000 are excluded from social housing and unable to access mortgages or local authority loans, leaving many at risk of becoming long-term private renters.
Funding proposals and the state housing bond
Brian Stanley called for emergency measures to create a state housing bond and urged use of credit union deposits, which he said could total around €160 billion, to fund affordable-to-buy, cost rental and social housing schemes. He argued the credit unions' savings could be mobilised for delivery of new supply.
Support for small builders and land-price controls
He urged low-interest finance for small builders to deliver schemes in small towns such as Mount Rath, Rathdowney, Mount Melik, Port Arlington, Port Leash, Great Cullen and Ballylinen. He also raised the Kennedy Report from 1973 and Judge Kenny's recommendations on keeping land prices down, including limiting development land values relative to agricultural land and imposing a windfall tax on development profits.
Reducing construction costs through standard plans
Brian Stanley proposed mass-producing between eight and ten standard house plans for different household needs and using them across local authorities to cut architectural fees and speed delivery. He cited architectural fees of 10-15% and urged ministers to adopt standard designs to reduce costs, speed up building and increase affordable and cost-rental supply.
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Transcript
I'll just say that the starting point here is that, and I think the Minister will have to accept this, the house prices have skyrocketed, rents have skyrocketed, and homelessness have skyrocketed. You can't argue with that. Fifty-one people were homeless in Leish in February. House prices have gone up 11.6%. The number of new homes are down. The number of new homes were down last year, 10,000 less than what you actually promised during the election. So we have a housing crisis, but it's not being treated as a crisis by government. Average rents across the state are €1,956 per month. That's a month's wages for most people, 43% higher than 2020, we have 143,000 on social housing waiting lists, and the current overall housing shortage, according to the Housing Commission, is 235,000. Tens of thousands of couples and families are just above the income threshold for social housing. If you take in Leish, it's 35,000. This is a cohort that we are not looking after. Those people who are on between 35,000 and 50,000 or 60,000, they cannot get a mortgage minister, they cannot get the local authority loan. It's a real problem. Some of them are gone over the age of 40, 45, so they cannot get private finance. We have to gear up the cost rental model for those people. I am appealing to you to do that. I am saying that in a constructive way. They are trapped forever in private rental accommodation, and they are going to be pensioner renters. This is going to be a real problem in the years to come. We do need to enact the emergency measures that are called for in the public interest to create a state housing bond. The credit unions have been saying for years they have a lot of money on deposit that can be used to build housing. There is potentially 160 billion in total in savings there, a lot of which could be used for housing schemes, and it could be used for affordable to buy schemes, it could be used for cost rental schemes, it does not have to be all social housing, some of it can be social housing. And one of the areas where we need to look at is making finance available to small builders, to build schemes in small towns, you know, such as Mount Rath, Rathdowney, Mount Melik, and Port Arlington as well, along with places like Port Leash and Great Cullen, Ballylinen. We can add on, some of those towns have the capacity to add on small schemes, and if builders got finance, low interest finance that they could use for that, it could be done. Why haven't we implemented the recommendations of the Kennedy Report from 1973? 22 years ago, if I recall, it was actually commissioned by a Fine Gael government, Labour government, and Judge Kenny said very clearly in relation to keeping land prices down, that development land wouldn't be only 25% above the market value of agricultural land, or an 80% windfall tax on the profits of development land. We have to take bold measures there to force down the price of land. You may, you may balk at that, but can you do something in between that? We have to free up, we have to reduce the cost of land for building. We also need to reduce the cost of building by mass producing. You know, we need somewhere, as I told you last week, between about eight and ten plans for the different type households and household needs. You know, large families, small families, you know, where there's disabilities, pensioners, whatever, you know. And those plans need to be used across the whole, all the local authorities, for affordable housing, for cost rentals and for socials. Do we really believe that people who need, you know, an affordable house to buy or a cost rental care, if the house they're living in in Donegal is the same as in County Leash, or the same as in Kerry or wherever else? No, they don't. I certainly wouldn't. You know, that's how we mass produce before we need to go back to doing this. And as I said to you, the same plans can be used. When we are starting, we have blank canvas, and I'd like the Ministers to listen to this. When we are starting, we have blank canvas on all housing schemes. The architectural fees are between 10 and 15 per cent, according to senior local authority officials. That needs to stop. The same plans will suffice, and we need to use those. And I would appeal to you to do that. We need to mass produce, reduce the costs, speed up delivery. Thank you very much.