The new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030, reinforces and expands the range of existing affordable housing measures being implemented by the Government. In particular, the plan provides for an unprecedented level of State funding in order to deliver an average of 15,000 starter home supports annually between now and 2030. Last year represented a record year in terms of delivery of affordable homes. Through the various affordable supports now available under the Government's new housing plan, more than 17,000 financial supports were provided to help people secure their first home during 2025.
Under the affordable housing fund, which the Deputy is asking about specifically, we hit a record number of new affordable homes completed last year - at more than 900 - right across the country. Even more affordable purchase homes are currently being advertised in Kilbeggan in County Westmeath, Carrickmacross in Monaghan, Kilmacow in Kilkenny, Clonburris in Dublin, and Rathmoylan in County Meath. These are homes made available for middle income families who up to now may have been priced out of the housing market. We need to do more. That is very much acknowledged. We are doing more to get affordable housing built where it is needed and onto the market at prices people can afford.
On the Deputy's question about open market value and how the scheme works at a technical level, the OMV is the reference price used to calculate the value of the affordable home, which in turn determines the level of equity share. The OMV is the best estimate of the price for which the affordable home might reasonably be expected to be sold on the open market. This reflects the value of the asset to the purchaser at any given time. The pricing always reflects the open market value of the home at the time, whether the cost of developing the home is greater or less than the open market value.
In my view, this is the best way to ensure fairness from one scheme to the next. As the Deputy is aware, development costs can vary for the exact same house in the same area for reasons such as the cost of developing a site; one site being more complex and challenging to build on than the other. If under this scheme we used the development cost of the house as the reference point for setting the purchase price, it is more than conceivable that two families under the scheme might end up paying very different prices for the exact same house around the corner from each other.
