Councils not aligned on national housing strategy

Decades of under-investment have led to the housing crisis, the Beauchamps Momentum Matters housing conference has heard (2 September).

The event, at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre, heard from Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage James Browne that we were now in what he termed “a housing emergency”.

Reset course

The minister said that he was determined to reset the course in housing in order to meet needs.

“I am impatient and determined to get us moving even faster to cut through the unnecessary roadblocks ... without compromising on the processes and the checks that are needed for quality of delivery,” he said.

The revised National Development plan, which allocates €102 billion over five years, would set aside €33.9 billion for housing, more than one-third of allocated Exchequer funding, he said.

Revised guidelines for apartment design, the Planning Act 2024, and increased housing targets were part of the shake-up to deliver 300,000 homes by 2030, he stated.

The apartment guidelines would lead to a cost reduction of up to €100,000 per unit, the minister said, and were aimed at getting units built quickly, particularly in the capital, without compromising on quality.

A total of 14,500 affordable-housing supports were delivered in the first quarter, he said.

The minister said that updated guidelines for local authorities would require them to deliver 55,000 new homes a year, with additional headroom to zone for 83,000 units a year.

The new housing-activation office would accelerate building by unblocking infrastructure delays, the minister stated, with the goal of sustainability and transport-oriented development.

Since June, all tenancies were now designated as rent-pressure zones, he said, as part of a package of rental reforms.

“This is a significant movement, a change to what was very much intended as a temporary measure but, at a time when the market for people who are renting is so difficult, it is absolutely necessary have this intervention made,” he said.

A balance must be struck to ensure that landlords remained in the sector, the minister warned, since certainty was needed to ensure investment – including from international finance.

The minister pointed to an increase in construction employment, with 190,300 now working in the sector – up almost 30,000 since 2024.

Aoife Watters of housing agency Respond said that there were just under 60,000 people on local-authority housing lists, with 58,000 active HAP tenancies, and 16,000 homeless people.

“The Housing Commission's recommendation that we aspire to get our social and affordable housing stock to 20% of our national stock… that's what's going to balance the market, that's what's going to stabilise our demand,” she said.

Stephen Garvey of Glenveagh said that capital from the private sector would participate in the market only if it was viable to do so, and there was a monumental challenge to move from 30,000 house completions annually to 60,000, since momentum was lost in 2024.

Irish Institutional Property chief executive Pat Farrell said that rent pressure zones were not everybody’s cup of tea, but should get institutional investment moving again.

He said that he detected “rolling low-level insurrection across certain local authorities”, adding that it was essential that councils were aligned with national policy.

Some senior planners had taken issue online with Government changes, he added.

Crack the whip

The minister might need to “crack the whip” if instructions were understood as simply circular letters of an advisory nature, Farrell said.

“I don’t think that’s good enough, because we are in a crisis and we need to move with speed to translate policy intent to action on the ground,” he said.

“Really, we may have to consider emergency powers when it comes to planning,” he said, particularly for infrastructure, which was a key enabler of housing.

Incentives would be the levers to a short-term inventory fix, he added, whether that was in tax, or development-levy waivers or extensions.

“Some combination of that is going to be required to close the viability gap, because we need to build 50,000 units per annum,” he said.

New form of tenure

Cost rental was a new form of tenure that did not exist previously, the event heard.

Low-cost debt and equity is provided by the Housing Agency to approved housing bodies, and contracts have been signed for delivery of 7,000 such units.

Conference chair Fidelma McManus (partner and head of housing at Beauchamps) was joined by Deloitte economist Kate English, who analysed key economic trends.

A second panel examined focused on how the revised NDP could become a delivery enabler.

Discussion centred on multi-annual funding requirements, constraints linked to prioritisation, emergency planning legislation, and capacity challenges.

Closing the event, Fidelma McManus (small picture, with Minister Browne) stated: “We’ve moved beyond simply identifying the challenges. This year, the focus is firmly on implementing recent policies, addressing viability, restoring certainty and stability and rebuilding momentum to accelerate current delivery and establish