Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 December 2025
521. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether his Department has prepared any projections or forecasts relating to future construction and delivery costs, per social and affordable housing unit under Housing for All or any successor programme; and if so, to outline those projections and the assumptions on which they are based. [73647/25]
View answerMy Department assesses, approves and records local authority social housing delivery on a project basis, rather than on the basis of individual units. All publicly-funded construction programmes must comply with the Infrastructure Guidelines (Public Spending Code) and Capital Works Management Framework. My Department periodically issues Basic Unit Costs (BUCs) for each local authority area, for use as a key benchmark for the development and costing of scheme designs at capital appraisal stage. While not a record of actual delivery costs, BUCs are based on an analysis of returned data from tendered social housing schemes over an extended period and updated based on published tender index information as required.
To monitor tender cost trends and to inform BUC levels, my Department analyses the tender data for the construction cost element of new build schemes approved under the SHIP & CAS four stage approval processes for each unit type, where sufficient information is available to allow such costs to be extrapolated and where the information available is appropriate for comparison purposes. Costs for schemes will vary depending on design, mix of unit types as well as abnormal costs.
In relation to affordable housing, affordability and the chance to own a home is at the heart of Government’s housing policy, as embodied within the new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025 – 2030. Government is investing an unprecedented level of funding to support housing supply, which will underpin, inter alia, the new Starter Homes Programme, delivering an average of 15,000 affordable housing supports annually to 2030.
Affordable housing solutions must deliver a significant discount on housing market purchase prices or rents while covering the cost of identifying, developing and delivering viable affordable housing schemes. As such, applications for affordable housing projects are assessed on their own merit in line with the criteria and conditions applicable under the different funding streams. Specific delivery costs per unit are variable and can greatly differ between both the affordable schemes themselves and the typology, location and overall layout of the developments in question.
My Department continues to receive and assess applications for suitability, value for money and compliance with the various requirements of the applicable funding scheme and the Department is committed to the provision of funding to local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies for the delivery of Social and Affordable housing projects.
Under Budget 2026, the total Exchequer funding being made available for the delivery of housing programmes is €7.21bn, comprising:
- Capital Funding - €5.19bn
- Current Funding - €2.021bn
The Exchequer Capital provision of €5.19bn will be supplemented by Land Development Agency (LDA) investment (projected up to €1.6bn) and Housing Finance Agency (HFA) lending (projected over €2bn), resulting in an overall capital provision of over €9bn.
