Model of housing delivery broken as cost of Dublin apartment builds explodes
Model of housing delivery broken as cost of Dublin apartment builds explodes - The Labour Party
Labour’s housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan TD has described the model of housing delivery as fundamentally broken, with news that the cost of building apartments in Dublin has exploded to over €600,000.
Deputy Sheehan said:
“Fianna Fáil are continually chasing the private developer industry despite ample evidence that this simply is not working. The Labour Party was critical of the VAT cut for developers when it came to apartment delivery, and the evidence today is clear – this developer-led measure has simply been absorbed as a benefit for the private sector, rather than being used as an incentive to reduce costs.
“Pursuing more of the same failed policies is continuing to worse the situation. As the Business Post is reporting this morning, the number of new apartments built fell 24.1% last year, and experts are now forecasting completions for 2025 could be down a further 25%.
“This is after a Budget that provided tax cuts for developers building apartments, and is in the context of a new housing plan published which has no plan to deal with land speculation and land hoarding which is rife across the country and delaying delivery. In the Greater Dublin Area alone, figures show that there are almost 41,000 dormant permissions for apartments.
“There was nothing in the Government housing plan, which we waited eleven months for, to support small SME developers who want to help deal with the crisis and bring housing into supply across local communities.
“Meanwhile, the much trumpeted Strategic Housing Activation Office still has no one individual at the helm leading its work and output, and we have no idea what it will do yet. At this stage, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was yet another distraction technique by this Government to give the appearance of action when the reality is that all the trends are going in the wrong direction.
“Government will yet again fail to meet its housing targets, and that means that more and more people who want to buy or rent are home will remain locked out of the market. The State needs to take a much bigger role in developing apartments through the Land Development Agency. We are seeing the evidence now that providing tax-breaks for developers is not working, just as it hasn’t in the past.
“There are no easy ways out of this crisis but it’s startling to see the lack of work or analysis put into addressing systemic issues in housing by this Government.