Coalition leaders agree target of 303,000 new homes between 2025 and 2030

THE COALITION LEADERS have agreed to a new housing target of delivering 303,000 new homes between 2025 and 2030.

At the leaders meeting this evening, housing targets up to 2030 were decided upon.

The delivery of 303,000 new homes in this timeframe is an annual average of 50,500 new homes and the aim is for gradual progression, rising to at least 60,000 per year by 2030.

Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris had said that he wanted to see new targets set before the calling of a general election, widely expected to happen later this week.

Speaking last week, Harris remarked: “I would personally have liked housing targets for the next number of years to have been set because I just think it provides a useful kind of anchor to the housing debate that rightfully will take place in the weeks ahead.”

The existing targets under Housing for All had set an average of 33,000 homes per annum until 2030.

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Senior ministers had said the Government would exceed its 2024 target under that plan of 33,450 – getting close to 40,000 by the end of the year.

The new targets from the Government come after the ESRI that the housing demand is projected to be approximately 44,000 per year until 2030, but that projections of housing demand are “very sensitive” to assumptions regarding migration.

Meanwhile, a Central Bank report in September estimated that between 52,000 and 67,000 new homes could be needed per year to meet emerging demand into the middle of the century.

The agreement of a new set of housing targets appears to be a climbdown of sorts from Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, who last week said the “ballpark” housing figures were already published.

“There was a range of scenarios identified by the ESRI and then you have the National Planning Framework as well, which dovetails with your housing targets for the future,” said Martin last week.

“So I think those two go hand-in-hand, but I think the ballpark figures are out there, they’re published.”

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper and Press Association

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