Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 January 2026
659. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on the 'owner occupier guarantee', as set out in the Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Act 2021, and on the number of houses and duplexes that have been covered by the relevant provision of the Act. [3963/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government has implemented a range of measures in recent years to ensure a balanced housing market across all tenures, including home ownership, social and affordable housing, and private rental.
In May 2021, conscious of the need to increase stock for home ownership, the government introduced a series of measures designed to prevent the bulk buying of houses and duplexes. The Section 28 Guidelines for Planning Authorities “Regulation of Commercial Institutional Investment in Housing” aimed to prevent multiple housing and duplex units being sold to a single buyer.
These guidelines seek to provide an ‘owner-occupier’ guarantee by ensuring that new ‘own-door’ houses and duplex units in lower-density housing developments should no longer be bulk-purchased by institutional investors in a manner that causes the displacement of individual purchasers or social and affordable housing, including cost-rental. The measure does not apply to apartments or housing set to be provided for social or affordable purposes.
The Guidelines include requirements that a new form of condition be inserted in applicable new planning permissions, to the effect that:
(1) all houses would have to be made available for sale and for first occupation by separate, individual households for a period of years after completion of the home. (In the case of mixed developments, the provision only applies to the houses and duplex units);
(2) exempts housing to be provided for social or affordable purposes from this requirement; and
(3) if, after a period of two years, the local authority is satisfied that despite reasonable efforts, a market has not emerged, the condition will lapse.
These measures have succeeded in preventing the inappropriate bulk purchase of a very significant number of homes and securing those homes for purchase by homeowners, with planning permission granted for over 50,000 units with conditions prohibiting bulk purchase by, or multiple sale to, a single purchaser of those homes since May 2021.
The Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Act 2021 provided that local authorities must ensure home ownership as a tenure type is provided for and estimated in their respective housing strategies. To this end, the Act introduces the principle of home ownership as a specific tenure type in a local authority housing strategy, with particular regard to developments of houses and duplexes, and gives further effect to the Section 28 Guidelines issued in 2021.
