State-built new homes to sell for close to €200k, Murphy insists
Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has insisted new homes built by the State will cost well below the €320,000 “affordable” level he has described previously.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Murphy was lambasted by Opposition spokespeople for giving away public lands to allow private developers make profits from them.
Mr Murphy said his new Land Development Agency will allow homes to be offered at close to €200,000, depending on location, as the State in many cases will be the developer.
Mr Murphy said his new agency will take time to establish itself but insisted it is a workable scheme to address the country’s housing supply shortage.
We are the developer, we are bringing forward public land for homes. In some places, 50% of houses built will be sold at market value. There will be up to 30% discount on the others,” he said.
However, the Opposition was not convinced.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, Fianna Fáil’s housing spokesman Darragh O’Brien criticised Mr Murphy and the Government for not building any social houses since 2011.
He criticised the plan which will see private developers being granted permission to build on public land. “It should be public or social housing. We have no affordable housing scheme and haven’t had one since 2011,” he said.
Mr O’Brien added that for people to be able to afford a home worth €320,000, they would need to be earning €90,000 a year and most people do not.
Labour’s Jan O’Sullivan, a former housing minister, said there is a major malfunction between Mr Murphy’s department and local councils, which is resulting in slow delivery of badly-needed social houses.
She likened allowing public lands to be used by private developers to “flogging off the family silver”.
Roscommon Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice accused Mr Murphy of publishing “inaccurate figures” in relation to the progress being made. Meanwhile, Labour Senator Kevin Humphreys has called on Mr Murphy to expand proposed regulations on Airbnb to all short-term let websites operating in Ireland.
Reports of landlords moving to alternative short term let websites ahead of plans to regulate providers such as Airbnb are worrying but unsurprising. This trend has been seen in other cities such as London which is why my proposal is to legislate for all short-term lets,” he said.
“I am calling on the minister to include all short-term let websites operating in Ireland in his recommendations.
