Taoiseach Simon Harris has said that house prices “are still too high for too many” as he and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien launched social homes in south Dublin.
It comes after figures published by the Central Statistics Office this week showed house prices increased by 9.6% in the 12 months to July.
Mr O’Brien said that Ireland was “bucking a trend” by being the only European country out of 19 where construction was continuing to grow.
Taoiseach Simon Harris at the launch one of the largest public housing projects in years in Shankill in south Dublin (Grainne Ni Aodha/PA)
He suggested that increasing supply would “absolutely help with affordability” in the private market.
“All of us want to see house prices moderate, and we want to see them affordable,” he said in Shanganagh Castle Estate in Shankill on Friday.
“What I’m saying here now is we’re seeing affordable homes here in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown right now. We’re seeing affordable homes across Dublin, across Cork, across the country, because the state is involved.
“The government is involved and making sure that that happens.
“We’re the only European country out of 19 where we’re seeing construction continue to grow, the 19 that was surveyed this year and last year, where we’ve grown and projected to grow again next year.
“So we’re bucking a trend in Europe. We are catching up. We know there are more challenges there and not everybody is feeling that, but that’s the new supply piece – we want to increase our own delivery and that absolutely helps with affordability.”
Mr Harris said that the government was using people’s taxes to provide schemes like the Help-to-Buy grant and the First Homes Scheme to afford homes.
He criticised Sinn Fein’s alternative housing plan, A Home of Your Own, where he said their affordable housing plan to people on a joint income of up to 90,000 euros a year would leave out senior gardai and nurses, and would also abolish the schemes that they could avail of.
“I think the closer we get to actually scrutinising the alternative, I think people are going to realise, yes, we are living in a country where house prices are still very significantly high, are still too high for too many, but that’s why we’re actually helping use the people’s own money by simply giving them some of their own tax back to help them get together a deposit that has helped tens of thousands of people, and (Sinn Fein) want to end that.”
The Taoiseach and Housing Minister launched 51 affordable purchase houses, 195 cost-rental apartments and 35 social apartments on Friday.
Eligible buyers can apply to purchase the 51 houses on Wednesday October 9, while the application portal for the 195 cost rental apartments will open later this year.
A total of 597 houses and apartments are planned at the estate.