Richard Boyd Barrett Seeks Clarity on Affordable Housing Thresholds

Minister, the income thresholds for affordable housing need to be clearly established but certainly what you've talked about to date are such that huge numbers of people we just don't know if they're actually what they are or how they're going to access affordable housing but also on the income thresholds for social housing you've promised a review on them when is that review going to happen Thank you very much for your cooperation minister and I know you're putting some questions here Thank you chair that's correct I'm taking questions 32, 38, 48 and 53 together Arrangements for home to be made available for purchase at a discount on open market rates are now provided for under the affordable dwelling arrangements and part 5 of the Housing Miscellaneous Provisions Act of 2009 which I commenced in June of last year As deputies will be aware provisions in housing acts in the Planning and Development Act of 2000 relating to affordable housing were repealed in 2011 given that house prices had halved in the period between 2008 and 2011 I signed regulations in respect to the making of a scheme of priority on the 12th of March of 2019 and these were issued to local authorities on the 22nd of March of this year The purpose of a scheme of priority is to set out the affordable purchase arrangements at local authority level This includes the methodology that will be applied by local authorities to determine the order of priority to be accorded to eligible households in instances where the demand for homes under the scheme exceeds the numbers available Further regulations will be put in place over the coming months regarding income eligibility and other matters When the operational procedures for the scheme have been finalised and before affordable homes are made available under the scheme A programme of communication will be undertaken by my department and by local authorities In order to support the delivery of homes to buy or rent at rates which are discounted on open market prices This government has committed €310 million under the Service Sites Fund from 2019 to 2021 to provide infrastructure to enable the delivery of some 6,200 homes To date, I have allocated funding of €127 million in support of 35 projects in 14 local authority areas for infrastructure works that will see the delivery of almost 3,200 homes The overall cost and the timing of delivery for these projects is contingent upon the completion of the design planning and procurement in the first instance and local authorities are working to achieve delivery as quickly as possible I can confirm that the first Service Sites Fund supported affordable homes will be delivered on site in Boerbury County Cork in 2020 and delivery across the country will increase incrementally on an annual basis thereafter The selling price of homes made available for purchase by local authorities will be influenced by a number of factors including the cost of each particular development which can vary significantly from one site to another and the housing type involved Whilst the central bank's macro prudential rules must be applied to banks providing mortgages to the purchase of what will be private homes available under the scheme The significant discounts of up to 40% of market prices will mean that these homes will be available to individuals on moderate incomes who would otherwise not be in a position to purchase their own home In addition to making more affordable homes for purchase using the cost rental model The Service Sites Fund will also play an important role in making homes available for rent at levels which are significantly below market rates I have convened a working group within the department in conjunction with the Land Development Agency, the Housing Agency and other expert bodies and this group is developing the policy framework for the broader cost rental model and examining how a sustainable financing structure can be established to commence delivery of units at the scale required to get this new category of housing off the ground The work of this group is being assisted by consultancy and research support that has been undertaken by the European Investment Bank on our behalf The work is being informed through two cost rental pilot projects at the former St. Michael's estate in Inchicore and at Enniscary Road in Dun Laoghaire-Rat-Down The latter of these has already commenced construction, supported by EIB funding and the first homes are anticipated to come on stream from 2021 In order to assist local authorities to progress projects that have been submitted under the Service Sites Fund my department hosted an affordable housing workshop last Thursday This workshop was attended by the 19 local authorities who were included in both the first and second Service Sites Fund calls These new schemes are set in the context of significant moderation in the growth in house prices and complement other key government affordability initiatives Included among these are the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan, under which over 1,000 loans have been drawn down by the end of June of this year and the Help to Buy scheme, under which some 14,000 applications have been approved In addition, the Land Development Agency's initial portfolio sites will have the potential to deliver 3,000 affordable homes and the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund, or LIHAF, will support more than 2,300 affordable homes on mainly publicly owned lands while 5,600 further homes will benefit from a LIHAF-related cost reduction, some of which have already come on stream In overall terms, programmes are in place under which some 18,000 affordable homes or homes with a LIHAF-related cost reduction will be delivered and to date, 15,000 households have also been supported into more affordable homes under a Building Ireland Home Loan or under the Help to Buy scheme To give some examples of what we are talking about in terms of the costs of these homes under the affordable scheme In Cork, in the Boerbwy, a housing estate we have just referenced, we will see two-bed houses being delivered at €200,000 or less and so for one person earning €36,000, they could afford to buy that home using the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan In Ballymun, we will see two-bedroom homes being sold at between €148,000 and €168,000 and so a single person earning €31,000 would be able to afford one of these homes using the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan In Ballyfermatt, there will be one-bedroom homes at about €136,000 that will be affordable to a person at €25,000 and in the O'Devony Estate, we will see two- to three-bedroom homes at €300,000 and a couple earning €55,000 could afford such a home A couple earning €55,000 would be typically a new teacher and a nurse living together and buying that home together So that is the type of affordability that we are planning on delivering on sites in Dublin, in Cork The cost rental site that I mentioned in your own constituency, Deputy, will see two-bedroom apartments for rent at €1200, €600 each per person renting That is how we are trying to drive affordability Getting that delivery on sites, using the Service Sites Fund to deliver both homes that are affordable to buy but also cost rental housing as well Thank you We were told that the S Geri site would commence two years ago and it still hasn't commenced And because you are linking affordability to market issues and cost issues The likelihood that people on low incomes will not be able to afford these houses, particularly in areas where market prices are very high, like mine, is certain What that means, particularly in relation to the income thresholds for social housing, is thousands of people are having their hopes and dreams, to use your earlier phrase, dashed Because after years of waiting on housing lists, they are being thrown off those housing lists because their income, temporarily, because of overtime or other things, marginally goes over the income threshold They are thrown off social housing lists, losing, in cases I haven't got time to list, 8, 10, 15, 20 years, waiting time on housing lists But their income means they haven't got a prayer, a prayer of buying or renting anything in their area or that the affordable housing that hasn't appeared but you promised is going to come will be affordable to them What do you say to them? Just to say in relation to Deputy Boyd Barrett, NS Geri Road has commenced It's cost rental model, it's a pilot project, it involves two housing bodies, housing finance agencies, the housing agency, my own department, the local authority If we get it right, a two bedroom apartment in a great location, very well serviced, will be available for €1200 And that's very, very important in terms of affordability 600 euro per person paying rent in that kind of a location, I think is very positive And if that works as a pilot, then we can expand it across the country And that's what the working group is there to do In relation to what might be affordable for someone who is looking to buy Well, the example I give you for O'Devony Gardens is a home, a new home, a two bed or a three bed That a starter teacher and a nurse living together could afford to buy These are the people that we're trying to target with the affordability provisions To go to the next question, which is around people who can't qualify for social housing How do we help them? We help them with these schemes We also help them with supply We know that the increase in supply that we have seen has driven house prices down in parts of Dublin Or stabilised them in other parts What we can't throw off is the old thinking that supply alone will bridge the affordability gap Particularly in our cities because it won't and it hasn't in other areas That's why we have these affordability schemes And we have the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan and Help Dubai To help people out of the rent trap into new homes $15.5 million Yeah, that's really good Be quite happy So, everything will affect people's lastAAAA days