HOUSING BUDGETS BEING SQUANDERED ON PRIVATE HOMES
FF claims €29m could have been saved by building new properties
IRELAND’s councils spent almost €1billion of taxpayers’ money buying up private homes since 2011 – instead of the cheaper option of building houses. The Irish Daily Mail can today reveal that local authorities have built just 2,354 new units since 2011. The rest have been purchased.
According to Fianna Fáil Housing spokesman Darragh O’Brien, who collected figures from the Department of Housing, €29million could have been saved by building new units instead of buying them.
The average cost of a house purchased was €162,000, rising to €221,000 in Dublin. The figures show that it would have cost €22,000 less – €199,000 – to have built a new home in Dublin during the same period.
The figures were obtained through Freedom of Information requests to
each of the country’s 31 local authorities.
In Cork, the average price paid by the council for a home was €191,000, but to have built a new home would have cost €155,000, a saving of €36,000.
Deputy O’Brien, of Fingal in north Co. Dublin, said that €17million would have been saved in Cork by building new homes, instead of buying second-hand houses.
‘In the midst of the worst housing crisis to have gripped the country, the right-wing
‘Pricing families out of the market’
orthodoxy of Fine Gael has prevented the sort of response needed to deal with the crisis,’ he said. ‘This data has revealed that the Government has spent just short of €1billion in taxpayers’ money to purchase 5,559 homes, pricing families trying to buy their own homes out of the market, without adding to the national [housing] stock.’
Mr O’Brien added that ‘not only has the Fine Gael plan driven up house prices generally, but, in many instances, it would have been significantly cheaper for the State to build new social homes’.
He continued: ‘Take Dublin, for example: it would have been €29million less expensive to build the same number of units than the Government chose to buy instead.
‘This sad narrative is the very same in every county up and down the country; no vision whatsoever to bring new housing stock on-stream and a severe over-reliance on the private sector. Affordable housing needs to be at the core of the forthcoming Budget and we will fight hard to force Fine Gael towards adopting a comprehensive affordable housing scheme.’
‘Fine Gael need to realise that this crisis requires them to set aside their orthodoxy and invest in new stock,’ he added.
Housing campaigner David Hall, of the Irish Mortgage Holders’ Organisation, queried if councils hid the fact that they were the buyers and not a private individual. He said: ‘Even with that level of spend, I’m not convinced they are savvy enough and have the business sense to hide the fact it’s the council buying, and making sure prices were not increased because of it.
‘They should hide who is buying, but also build more themselves.’
The Department of Housing had not returned a call seeking comment last night.