Sinn Féin has promised affordable homes will be sold “as low as €250,000” if elected at the next election.
The party’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin lambasted the current Government for allowing homeownership to ‘collapse’ and pledged to reverse the trend in power.
“Working people need homes at affordable prices,” Deputy Ó Broin told Newstalk Breakfast.
“That’s prices below €300,000; anything else is just making it more and more difficult for more people to afford homes.
“Home ownership, particularly among the under 40s, is collapsing under this Government.”
A housing development under construction, Carrigaline, County Cork. Image: David Creedon / Alamy Stock PhotoSinn Féin on housing
Over the past year, the median house price in Ireland was €330,000 - up by 6.1% in 12 months.
Prices are expected to continue on their upwards trajectory and Deputy Ó Broin said there are a number of things the State could do to cut the cost of housing.
“Back in 2021, we set out very clearly how local authorities and approved housing bodies… could deliver homes at prices to purchase,” he said.
“In fact, as low as €250,000.
“The core principle is you separate out the cost of the land, the site servicing and the utility connections from building the home.
“The State pays for the first lot - the land related costs, they’re typically 20 to 33% of the development costs.
“The purchaser then buys the home, they own the home… and they get free indefinite use of the public land the State has paid for, subject to a couple of reasonable covenants.”
A housing estate under construction. Image: David Creedon / AlamyThe conditions will include a ban on renting the property out on the private rental market and that the property must be sold onto another affordable purchaser when the buyer moves on.
Deputy Ó Broin believes this is a recipe to deliver “large volumes” of affordable home and the construction sector has the capacity to build them.
“Industry has been saying over the last couple of weeks that they’re only operating at 80% capacity in the residential sector,” he said.
“You have a slow down in the commercial real estate sector; I’ve been talking to the Irish Home Builders’ Association and other builder developers, there is extra capacity there.
“What there isn’t is a pipeline of contracted work from our local authorities and approved housing bodies to build thousands of genuinely affordable homes that people can afford.”
In 2023, 32,695 new homes were built and Taoiseach Simon Harris said he expects around 40,000 will be delivered in 2024.
Main image: Eoin Ó Broin. Picture by: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie
