Moate scheme example of appetite for affordable housing projects

A Westmeath affordable house purchase scheme was used as an example of how government incentives can influence house prices.

The matter was raised in the Oireachtas at a committee meeting debating housing. Members of the Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery were deliberating the role of private sector construction for high-quality infrastructure to enable house building.

One of the contributors was Dominic Doheny, chair of the infrastructure committee and member of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). He said government policy can influence the cost of housing for home buyers.

“…if more land is zoned and more competition is introduced into the marketplace, it will have an effect,” Mr Doheny said.

“Affordability is a big issue at the moment, so there already is a cohort of people who cannot afford to buy houses. Any sort of initiative that helps to reduce the price of houses would bring that cohort within the affordability range.

“Straight away, a new market is offered to the builder. Building is an industry with a production line. All builders want to do is produce and sell houses.

“They cannot afford to sit on the land or produce houses and not sell them.”

He referenced the Westmeath project as an example of how this influences the market: “A good example is Moate, County Westmeath, where 20 affordable houses were recently brought to the market, for which 180 people applied.

“Those 180 people cannot afford to pay the market price for those houses but they can afford to buy under the affordable incentive. Any incentive the government might introduce to reduce the price of houses would bring more people into the market and would increase competition in the industry.”