The Irish government plans to build 25,000 new homes next year

The Irish government has promised to build 25,000 new homes in Ireland by 2021.

Meanwhile, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) estimates that 33,000 new homes will be needed each year in proportion to Ireland’s population growth.

The government says only 17,000 to 18,000 homes will be completed in the country this year due to the Covid crisis.

However, Tom Parlon, director general of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), said he expects 20,000 homes to be completed by the end of the year.

The closure of all areas of the country in the first lockdown following the Covid expansion had created a major crisis in the housing sector as well. Because of this, many projects have stalled. The construction sector has revived with the introduction of lockdown exemptions. Now, construction work is underway on a large scale, Tom said.

At the same time, construction work on the buildings required for the HSE was underway during the lockdown. He also said that after the first lockdown, the construction sector was given concessions and social housing projects were allowed.

Tom said everyone adapted to the working conditions of Covid’s time, but the barriers before Covid still exist in the construction sector.

He said delays in planning were the biggest impediment to construction work, which has led to a stalemate in the construction sector.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Micheál Martin had said that 9,000 new social homes would be built this year. Next year, half (12,500) of the 25,000 new homes planned to be built will be social housing. The government aims to build 10,000 to 12,000 houses in the private sector.

The Prime Minister has allocated 468 million for serviced sites, 468 million for local infrastructure activation fund, Reconstruction Ireland housing loan scheme, land development agency, 110 million for affordable home rental projects and 435 million for cost of rental housing.

Meanwhile, the government had announced in the budget of 75 million euros to buy 2,000 affordable homes next year.

Approved agencies will also be allowed to borrow up to 30 per cent of the cost of cost-of-rent houses built by approved agencies through the Capital Advance Leasing Facility Model Fund through the new Constantine Equity Loan system.