The State is putting an awful lot of cash in, but are taxpayers seeing a worthwhile return?
counted up €8.3 billion in State resources directed to housing in 2024, when State investment, day-to-day supports for people in accommodation and tax breaks and incentives are all counted in. And this excludes some spending which is impossible to calculate - such as the subsidy to local authority tenants who pay below market rates, or the tax revenue foregone from excluding the family home for the calculation of capital gains tax.
But there are deeper issues too. Builders complain about regulations. Planning is clearly too slow, though a change in approach last year and the ending of theapplication process , under which developers applied directly to An Bord Pleanála- appears to have helped. There are significant delays between the Government apparatus and local authorities in approving schemes and freeing cash. In turn all these delays adds to the cost - and, crucially, risk - of development.
New home buyers will be assisted by the Help-to-Buy scheme and perhaps the First Home Scheme - under which the State takes an equity stake. If they can’t get finance from a bank their local authority may give them a loan. The cost rental tenants will pay a rent which is below the full market cost. Purchasers of affordable housing are helped to buy a property below market cost. State supports are everywhere, in other words. The question is whether the money is being well spent.
And for the next government, whatever shape it takes, there will be an expectation of a new dynamic in tackling the crisis. But unwinding what is there already , or changing course, is not straightforward. Many home developments have now been started on the basis on one or other of the schemes offered by the State to support developers, or on the expectation of qualifying for one.
Early retirement: People would give up a fifth of State pension if allowed payment at 60, survey finds‘We got a ring, it looked like a washer’: Irish victims lose thousands in global online shopping scam centred in China
Housing-Crisis Housing-Agency Darragh-O-Brien
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