Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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50. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the reason an open market valuation is being used to establish the price of homes under the Government’s affordable purchase scheme rather than all-in development costs. [43227/24]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Can the Minister explain why he is charging people purchasing homes under his so-called affordable purchase scheme more than the actual cost of delivering those homes? As he knows, he uses open market value rather than full or all-in development costs. This means that if people want to own their homes outright, they do not just have to pay the full cost that the local authority or Land Development Agency, LDA, had to pay to deliver them, in some cases they are obliged to pay between €50,000 and €80,000 more. Why is the Minister using open market value and not all-in development costs?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Affordability and the chance to own your own home are at the heart of this Government’s housing policy. Since 2021, over 8,500 housing supports have been delivered through the various measures we have established and are implementing with our delivery partners.

Since the launch of Housing for All, close to 1,000 local authority affordable purchase homes at upfront affordable prices have been provided. The pipeline continues to grow because over 3,100 affordable purchase homes have been approved for funding support across 21 local authority areas. The upfront price that purchasers availing of the local authority affordable purchase scheme pay for their new home is based on their purchasing power and means. The affordability gap between the market value of the home and the upfront price sets the size of the equity stake held by the local authority, generally redeemable at a time of the purchaser's choosing.

Operating under similar principles, the first home scheme is a further key support for first-time buyers. The published report for the scheme for quarter 3 of this year shows that more than 5,560 approvals have issued since its launch in 2022. I remind the Deputy that this is a scheme he would abolish, that is actually helping first-time buyers to purchase their home. Together with the Croí Cónaithe towns schemes and the help-to-buy scheme, these affordable purchase measures are seeing high demand and are proving highly effective in addressing the affordability challenges so many people are facing. We recognise that. We have made progress but challenges remain. These schemes are working. The prices are transparent. The equity stake is absolutely transparent. We are building that pipeline across the country, an affordable scheme that works, not an illusion of home ownership that you have put forward in your alternative plan.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Of course the Minister failed to answer the question. It could be that he does not understand the details of his scheme or it could be he does not want people to know how it works. Let me remind him. For one of the three-bed terraced units in Shanganagh Castle - a scheme he launched so enthusiastically very recently - the full cost if the purchaser wants to own the home outright is €550,000. It did not cost the LDA €550,000 to deliver that home. In fact, it probably cost about €100,000 less, particularly given that there are no developer's margin or market land values. If the LDA is delivering that affordable home for €450,000, why is the Minister asking the purchaser to pay an extra €100,000 if they want to own it outright? He is charging them the open market value, as set out on the council's website, rather than the all-in development cost. If he used all-in development costs and applied the affordable housing fund, that home could actually be sold at €350,000, not the €450,000 entry price set out in the reply. It is still not affordable enough, but my question is why the open market value rather than the cost of delivery applies. It is a simple question.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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These schemes are working. We did launch Shanganagh Castle with enthusiasm because it is a wonderful development. I will invite the Deputy to visit Shanganagh Castle to see it because they are real homes, not an illusion of homes, for real people. I confidently predict every one of them will be sold.

Households pay what they can afford, although the value of the home may be much higher. There is no arbitrary salary cap related to eligibility, unlike in Sinn Féin's scheme, where the limit is €90,000 for a couple. No one gets any support from the Sinn Féin plan. Aspiring purchasers from higher house value areas are supported in the same way as lower income aspiring purchasers in lower house value areas. Householders can sell their homes on the open market if they wish to move or their circumstances change and householders can, unlike in Sinn Féin's scheme, keep any capital value increase on their share of the property. Additional new supply is stimulated and new households are supported into the future as the revolving fund of capital receipts is redeployed to make more new affordable housing available.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Of course, the big difference between our scheme and the Government's scheme is that in ours, the purchaser pays €250,000 and owns the home outright. Under the Government’s scheme, they will pay €550,000.

The Minister still has not answered my simple question, which I will put again as plainly as I can. I suspect he knows the answer but does not have the courage to state it on the Dáil record. Why is the Government charging a family to purchase a three-bedroom unit at Shanganagh Castle €550,000 to own the home outright, when the cost to the State, that is, the cost to the Land Development Agency, is €440,000? Why on earth would it add a further €100,000 by pegging it to a fictional open-market value, rather than say it cost the Land Development Agency €440,000 to deliver the home, apply an affordable housing fund subsidy and sell it at €350,000, and if the family want to own it outright, they can buy it for €450,000? Why is the Government charging them more than the cost of delivery if they want to own the home outright by, in this instance, an additional €100,000?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The facts are, based on the returns received from local authorities for transactions completed this year, that the average upfront affordability purchase price paid by borrowers is €267,000 for a range of two-, three- and four-bedroom homes. Look at the difference between the scheme that is working on the ground and Sinn Féin's scheme, where purchasers do not even own the land the property is built on. In Sinn Féin's utopian world, it will tell people who they can sell the house to and at what price and, furthermore, where they can live, given the Deputy has never explained where Sinn Féin is going to build these properties. What we are doing is building them out directly through the local authorities. The Deputy might find this amusing but if, God forbid, he ever got into this seat-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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It is the Minister's unwillingness to answer the question that is amusing.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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-----he would have to deliver homes. He knows the glossy brochure that Sinn Féin published will not do that, given he could not state earlier, even in respect of the home-you'll-never-own plan, that anyone will even lend to it. Sinn Féin will not even get development finance to lend to it.