Only 158 new social homes built in first three months of 2024
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There have been just 158 new-build social homes delivered in the first three months of the year, new data from the Department of Housing shows.
According to figures published on Tuesday, a total of 720 social homes have been either built, acquired or leased out in the first three months of the year. This compares to the overall target of 12,930 set out as part of the Government's Housing For All plan.
However, the latest Construction Status Report does show that there are 9,179 social homes under construction at the end of March, while a further 15,848 are at both design and tender stages.
While there has been low levels of delivery, the Department of Housing has highlighted that significant levels of social housing completions took place in the second half of the year, but mostly in the final three months.
In particular, it cites that 67% of all social housing output took place in the last three months of 2023, where 5,472 homes were completed.
However, this was not enough to meet the overall target last year, with 8,110 new-build social homes being delivered compared to the 9,100 target.
On cost-rental housing, the delivery has also been low in the first three months of 2024, with 24 homes being completed by affordable housing bodies. No local authorities or the Land Development Agency (LDA) completed any cost rental properties in Q1.
There were 38 cost-rental properties achieved through the Government’s Tenant In-Situ scheme, where properties are acquired by local authorities when landlords seek to sell up.
On affordable housing, there have been 32 homes sold through the Government’s local authority Affordable Purchase Scheme. This scheme aims to assist people buy a house, with the local authority taking an equity stake in the property that covers the price reduction.
There were 809 approvals under the First Home scheme, another equity scheme where the government and participating banks take a stake in a property to reduce its cost.
The latest figures come just weeks after Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien confirmed that the Government would increase housing targets to around 50,000 new homes a year in the autumn.