Some 4,000 houses are to be provided next year under the first phase of an initiative to build 20,000 homes on sites controlled by Nama countrywide by 2020.
About 90 per cent will be built on sites in Dublin city or the greater Dublin area, and three quarters will be “starter homes”.
Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly said he expected these houses would cost "€300,000 or below" and were aimed specifically at Dublin buyers because of the "extreme dysfunction" of that market. "The crisis most acutely felt in Dublin, the real failure of the housing market in Dublin is on the private side but that requires State intervention."
Separately, more than 1,500 social housing units will be built or bought next year by local authorities or the not for profit housing sector and a similar number of vacant council houses and flats will be brought back into use.
Local authorities will be allowed to seek 3,000 more units from the private sector through long term leasing arrangements. Another 10,000 families will be seeking to rent in the private sector using the Housing Assistance Payment, funding for which is going from €24.5 million to €47.7 million. While another 1,000 households will rent privately using the Residential Accommodation Scheme which will be funded to the tune of €135 million.
In total the Department of the Environment is spending €811 million, or 50 per cent of its budget to provide 17,000 social homes next year. About 14,000 of these homes - about 14,000 will be secured in the private rented sector at a cost of €379 million with, €432 million being spent on building, buying an refurbishing empty units.
Under a separate initiative 500 new social homes are to be provided through public private partnerships with developers. The measure is part for the Government’s Social Housing Strategy 2020 which aims to provide 1,500 social housing units using PPPs.
Six locations have been chosen for the five 500 units, which will be built over a three to four year period at six location in Dublin and its commuter counties. The chosen sites are at Ayrfield, Malahide Road and Scribblestown in Dublin city; Corkage Grange in South Dublin, Dunleer in Louth, Convent Lands in Wicklow Town and Craddockstown in Naas, Co Kildare.
Unlike previous PPP models, the sites stay in the ownership of the State and the developer gets payments for a 25 year period, after which the houses or apartments return to State ownership.
“This will involve the provision of social housing with a capital value in the region of €100 million. Before the end of 2015, I expect to be able to announce details of the sites for the remaining bundles and the investment of a further €200 million,” Mr Kelly said.
Another €10 million has been set aside from the proceeds of the sale of Bord Gáis for an affordable rental scheme. This initiative will be aimed at people whose incomes area above the threshold for State rental assistance but who cannot afford private rents.
To tackle homelessness, the allocation for emergency accommodation is being increased by an additional €17 million, bringing exchequer support for homelessness to €70 million. A total of €4.3 million will be spent on Traveller accommodation, a similar figure to last year.
