Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 December 2025
522. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether his Department benchmarks the cost of delivering social and affordable housing units in Ireland against comparable EU member states; if so, to detail the most recent benchmarking exercise carried out; and if not, the reasons such benchmarking is not undertaken. [73648/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn 2023 my Department published the Residential Construction Cost Study Report, informed by in-depth analysis on residential construction costs under Housing for All. Within the study, Irish residential construction costs, processes and models were compared against four European comparator cities.
The Report identified a host of subsequent actions to drive down construction costs and maximise future building capacity through greater standardisation and the adoption of more efficient residential construction processes across tenures. A copy of the Report was published on my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/2bf87-residential-construction-cost-study-report/
This report has been supplemented with the publication of the Total Development Cost Study in 2024 and the most recently published Insights into Total Development Cost Report 2025, which assesses residential development costs across six dwelling types for the Greater Dublin Area and four regional locations. This report is available to view on my Departments website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/publications/total-development-cost-report/
This Government is committed to delivering evidence informed policy decisions, this report will help deliver the initiatives that will see a reset in housing delivery on a scale that is needed. Whilst the report shows a stabilisation in total development costs, Government recognises that these costs remain high.
Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030, contains significant initiatives to reduce costs of development including updated apartment design standards, reduced tax liabilities, VAT reduction on apartments and standardised design approaches which have the potential to result in significant cost savings making them more viable to construct.
My Department periodically issues BUCs for each local authority area as key benchmarks for developing and costing housing scheme designs at the initial capital appraisal stage. They are not intended to be limits or ceilings on project costs, rather their function is to provide local authorities with guideline costings at an early stage of project development.
While not a record of actual delivery costs, BUCs are informed by analysis of returned tender data from tendered social housing schemes and reflect a ‘base build cost’, excluding abnormals (i.e. project specific requirements such as poor ground conditions, site topography, special needs requirements). Given the nature of construction, all projects would be expected to have some level of abnormal or project specific requirements. However, the extent of such requirements will vary significantly from project to project.
