Minister James Browne discusses housing completions

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Shane Colman (0:40)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On News Talk, with Kiya.

Now we're joined in studio by James Browne, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Minister, the number of new homes completed in Ireland is up 10% or 10.5% so far this year. An increase in the volume of apartment and housing scheme units completion in the three months to the end of September. You're doing well, I suppose these figures would suggest, but nowhere near well enough given the targets, the ambitious targets you set down.

James Browne (1:19)

So I think what the evidence today of 26,800 plus homes being built so far this year, as you say, is an increase of over 10%. What it demonstrates is momentum. We know we have to do an awful lot more, but these are 26,000 plus homes. They're going to be homes for families, for individuals. That means keys in our hands, turning on the lights for the first time with a safe and secure future. It's coming on the back of a 20% increase last year. We're seeing increases in planning permissions, commencements and mortgage drawdowns, but we do have to do an awful lot more.

We know that. What I want to see is houses being affordable, but affordable for people to be able to buy them where they need to buy them or get affordable homes or social homes for that matter, and be that in rural, be it in villages, towns or in our cities.

Shane Colman (2:09)

Affordable homes costing 475,000. I mean, there's a contradiction in terms really, isn't it?

James Browne (2:15)

Well, there's no question we have an affordability challenge in this country. That's why the government has brought in support, such as the Help to Buy and the First Home Scheme, and we're encouraging people to be aware of those schemes that are out there to help them get.

Shane Colman (2:27)

Some people saying, and sorry, I won't keep cutting across, but some people saying those Help to Buy schemes are actually part of the problem. They're inflating the price of housing.

James Browne (2:33)

Now, we're happy the evidence shows that they're not inflating. Without people being able to get those supports, they wouldn't be able to get those homes. We do keep them under close review. We don't want to be increasing, making decisions that is increasing housing prices, but we do want to ensure that people can get those homes. That's why the first home and help to buy schemes are really very important. Schemes that have been opposed by the opposition in terms of giving people those helps, and we've seen a significant drawdown in relation to them.

But it's also about, I think it's today's numbers are evidence that the policies are working. Since I became minister, I've been tearing through the Department of Housing to find every way that we can simplify and standardize systems because things have become way too complicated, too complicated for people to build a one-off home or for larger companies to build at scale. And that was also driving up costs. So when you look at the changes I'm making around rural housing, for example, that's not only about making it easier for people to build homes, but also trying to address the complexity to make it easier and therefore cheaper for people to be able to get planning permission as well, because there are two cost issues in the country, in my view, one is obviously the cost you pay at the pumper in the shop, but the other is bureaucratic costs. And I think maybe when during the, when we weren't building a whole lot of homes, too many policies came into place that were, you know, perfection was the end of the good type policies. What I want to do is get people building homes or people getting, you know, they want their needs.

Shane Colman (4:01)

Do you, how many houses do you think we'll have built by the end of the year?

A lot of predictions today that will be around the 40,000 mark. Is that a fair assessment, do you think?