Housing for All

Housing for All: A New Housing Plan for Ireland was launched on 2 September 2021 by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien. The plan committed to the delivery of 300,000 new homes by 2030, representing an average of 33,000 completions per year — approximately double the 15,000–16,000 delivered annually in 2016–2018. The plan was described by the Government as the most comprehensive housing plan in the history of the State and represented a commitment of €4 billion annually in public investment in housing.

The Land Development Agency Act 2021 placed the Land Development Agency on a statutory footing, giving it powers to acquire, develop and dispose of state land for housing purposes. The LDA was originally established as an interim body by Government decision in 2018. The 2021 Act granted the LDA powers to compulsorily acquire land in certain circumstances, to establish a strategic land bank, and to develop homes directly at social and affordable rents on state-owned land, with a mandate to deliver at scale in areas of high housing need.

The Affordable Housing Act 2021 created the legal framework for cost rental as a new housing tenure in Ireland for the first time. Cost rental homes are let at rents based on the cost of building and managing the homes, rather than market rates, and are targeted at households in the 'squeezed middle' who earn too much to qualify for social housing but cannot afford private rents. The Act also established the Affordable Housing Fund to support local authorities to develop below-market-price homes for purchase.

CSO data published at end-2022 showed 29,851 housing completions during 2022, below the 33,000 annual target set in Housing for All. The figure included apartments, one-off rural dwellings and social housing. Construction cost inflation, supply-chain disruptions and labour shortages were cited by the industry as the principal reasons for the shortfall. Opposition parties cited the figure as evidence that the plan's supply targets were unrealistic without direct state procurement at scale.

CSO data for 2023 showed 32,695 total completions, the highest annual figure since 2007 and close to the 33,000 target. However, the social housing component — local authority and approved housing body completions — remained below the targets set in Housing for All. Homelessness figures reached a record high during 2023, with 13,000+ people in emergency accommodation, including over 4,000 children — figures the Opposition cited as evidence that the housing crisis had deepened despite record completions.

The Planning and Development Bill 2023, described by the Government as the most significant reform of planning law in the history of the State, was introduced in January 2023. The Bill was intended to overhaul An Bord Pleanála (rebranded An Coimisiún Pleanála), introduce mandatory timelines for planning decisions, reduce judicial review delays, and streamline the strategic housing development process. The Bill ran to over 700 pages and took two years to complete its Oireachtas passage, amid significant debate about its provisions on judicial review standing and third-party objectors.

The Land Development Agency delivered its first directly developed homes in 2024, including at the Shanganagh Castle Estate in Shankill, south Dublin — a 597-unit scheme comprising social, affordable rental and affordable purchase homes. The Shanganagh scheme, on land owned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, was the first large-scale directly procured LDA development to reach completion. The LDA's pipeline included further schemes at Castlelands (Balbriggan), Dundrum and Cork.

Budget 2025 (October 2024) extended the Help-to-Buy scheme for first-time buyers, which provides an income tax refund of up to €30,000 (raised from €20,000 in Budget 2021) for the purchase of a new build home. The extension and expansion of the scheme was contested: opponents including Sinn Féin argued it was subsidising construction profit margins and pushing up prices rather than improving affordability, while Government argued it was essential to support first-time buyer demand and stimulate supply.

The first cost-rental homes developed directly by local authorities under the Local Authority Direct Delivery model, funded through the Cost Rental Equity Loan scheme, were occupied in early 2025. Cost rental, created by the Affordable Housing Act 2021, saw its first significant delivery scale in 2025, with approximately 2,000 units delivered cumulatively since the scheme's inception. Rents in the cost-rental sector were set at 25–40% below open market rents in the relevant locations. Target delivery of 4,000 cost-rental units per year by 2026 remained well behind schedule.

In January 2026 the Department of Housing announced a mid-term review of the Housing for All plan, to reassess delivery targets and policy instruments in light of five years of implementation. Factors driving the review included persistent construction cost inflation, the impact of the Planning and Development Act 2024 on development timelines, and the continued gap between social housing delivery and demand. The review was expected to result in an updated action plan and potentially revised annual completion targets.

As of May 2026 annual housing completions are running at approximately 30,000–33,000, close to the plan's nominal annual target. However, the composition of completions — weighted toward private market units — means that social housing delivery, affordable purchase and cost rental remain below ambition. Homelessness remains at historically elevated levels. The cumulative public investment in housing since 2021 exceeds €4 billion annually in direct state expenditure, making housing the largest non-health capital programme in the State.

Despite Housing for All's ambition, Irish residential property prices and rents remained among the highest in the EU relative to average incomes throughout the plan's first five years. Daft.ie and CSO data showed average national rents rising from approximately €1,400/month in 2021 to over €1,800/month by 2024 in Dublin. First-time buyers were priced out of major urban markets without significant state subsidy. Eurostat data ranked Ireland consistently in the top three EU member states for housing cost overburden.

Housing for All committed to the delivery of approximately 90,000 social homes over the decade 2021–2030 (averaging 9,000 per year). Annual social housing output from local authorities and approved housing bodies consistently fell short of this target in the plan's early years. The Housing Agency's 2022 Social Housing Need Assessment identified over 60,000 households on the social housing waiting list. Constraints included local authority construction capacity, land availability, construction cost inflation and the slow activation of the LDA's direct delivery pipeline.

A principal constraint on Housing for All delivery has been the limited capacity of the Irish construction sector. The Construction Industry Federation estimated a shortfall of 50,000 construction workers by 2025 relative to the volume required to meet housing targets. Construction cost inflation, running at 10–15% per annum in 2022–2023, compressed developer margins and rendered many apartment schemes unviable without additional subsidy. The Government's introduction of a temporary reduced VAT rate for rental properties and expanded activation funds were partial responses to these constraints.

The Government committed to annual public investment of over €4 billion in housing across capital, current and land-related expenditure as part of Housing for All. This figure includes local authority housing construction, HAP and RAS payments, CREL loans, the Affordable Housing Fund, LDA capital investment, and Help-to-Buy tax expenditure. Revised estimates in 2024 showed total housing-related state expenditure exceeding €6 billion per annum when all indirect subsidies and tax expenditures were included, making housing the largest area of state social investment outside health.

The Housing Act 1966 and its subsequent amendments establish the core statutory obligations of local authorities in Ireland to provide and manage social housing for persons on the housing list who are assessed as being in need. Local authorities must carry out housing needs assessments, maintain waiting lists, allocate housing according to published allocation schemes, and report annually to the Department of Housing. Housing for All's social housing delivery targets are implemented through the local authority framework established by this Act.

If breached: Failure to meet housing functions can give rise to complaints to the Ombudsman; judicial review by applicants on the housing list who are unlawfully refused or delayed in allocation.

The Affordable Housing Act 2021 created the statutory basis for cost rental housing as a new tenure in Ireland, established the Affordable Housing Fund, and set out the framework for the Land Development Agency's affordable housing mandate. The Act requires the LDA and local authorities to prioritise affordable and social tenures in developments on state-owned land, and requires the Housing Agency to maintain an accurate register of housing need. Housing for All's affordable and cost-rental targets are legally framed by this Act.

If breached: Failure to comply with the Act's provisions on social and affordable allocations in state-land developments could give rise to judicial review by affected applicants.

EU state aid rules under TFEU Article 107 constrain the forms of public subsidy that can be provided to housing construction and land development without notifying the European Commission. The CREL, Help-to-Buy and Affordable Housing Fund schemes must be structured to comply with the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) or the Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI) framework for social housing. The European Commission issued a housing guidance note in 2022 to assist member states in designing housing subsidy measures that comply with state aid rules, reflecting the EU-wide recognition of housing as a social and economic emergency.

If breached: Unlawful state aid must be recovered with interest; Commission infringement proceedings; risk to scheme beneficiaries who received unlawful aid.

Critics of Housing for All, including Sinn Féin and tenant advocacy groups, argued that the plan did not adequately address the role of institutional investors — so-called 'cuckoo funds' — in purchasing large volumes of newly built homes for institutional rental, reducing availability for owner-occupation and inflating prices. Government measures including the Stamp Duty increase on bulk purchases of 10 or more houses (to 10%, introduced in 2021) were described by critics as insufficient to prevent institutional distortion of the market.

Economic commentary including an ESRI working paper and submissions from independent economists argued that the Help-to-Buy scheme — by subsidising the demand side of the market rather than supply — had the effect of pushing up the prices of new build homes in the price ranges eligible for the scheme, benefiting developers rather than buyers. The scheme was described as a fiscal transfer from taxpayers to the construction and land-owning sectors without a commensurate increase in supply.

Homelessness charities Focus Ireland, the Peter McVerry Trust and Threshold published statements in 2023 arguing that Housing for All's record-high homeless figures — over 13,000 in emergency accommodation, including 4,000+ children — demonstrated a fundamental failure of the plan's social housing component. The charities called for a greater proportion of state capital investment to be directed to social housing by local authorities and approved housing bodies rather than to market-rate support mechanisms.