Sinn Féin has unveiled a plan to spend €39 billion on housing over the next five years to deliver 300,000 homes in a project the party described as the most ambitious housing programme in the state’s history.
Entitled A Home of Your Own, the document runs to some 100 pages and sets out how the party will “transform housing” in Ireland if it is elected to government.
Sinn Féin said it will phase out existing subsidies and shared equity schemes as well as reducing rent subsidies and delivering affordable homes between €250,000 and €300,000.
It also pledged to introduce a stamp duty exemption for First Time Buyers, which will see house buyers not paying stamp duty on a property valued at €450,000 or less.
The party said it will also introduce a three-year emergency ban on rent increases for all existing and new tenancies.
Sinn Féin said it will also support the four Dublin Local Authorities to establish a publicly owned building contractor, as well as direct building by the state and enshrining the right to a home in the Constitution.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said her party is ready to implement this “ground-breaking” plan in government from day one.
Speaking at the launch in Dublin, she added: “We wouldn’t waste a single moment of making transformative change happen in housing.
“This is a plan that delivers for first time buyers and for all of those who aspire to owning a home of their own, a plan that repairs the private rented sector, ends the rip-off and delivers fair, affordable rents.
“A plan that gives hope to those living in the box room of their parents, home long after they’ve wanted to strike out on their own.
“This is a plan that can ensure that our young people can build a successful future here at home. You see, we believe that housing can be fixed.”
Pearse Doherty, the party’s spokesman for finance, said the annual expenditure would be around 7.8 billion euro.
Sinn Féin has launched our plan to make housing affordable and to bring homeownership back into reach for working people - https://t.co/2I5kqMynSM
'A Home Of Your Own' is a comprehensive costed plan, the scale and ambition of which has never been set out by any other party. pic.twitter.com/CIP7zNc3IL— Sinn Féin (@sinnfeinireland) September 2, 2024
“This includes the total cost of 37 billion euro for the new build programme and two billion euro over the five years for the acquisition programme,” the Donegal TD said.
“This would be provided for through 25.3 billion euro in voted capital expenditure from the exchequer and 13.7 billion euro in non-voted expenditure, comprising of loans from the Housing Finance Agency and other sources.
“The annual average expenditure would be 7.8 billion, of which the average of 5.1 would be from exchequer and 2.7 million would be borrowing from the HFA and other sources.
“We are committed to this level of funding because housing is a whole of government challenge.
“It is a whole of Ireland challenge for families in every community, in every parish, whether it’s families living in substandard accommodation, whether it’s overcrowded housing, whether it’s young adults who can’t afford to rent or to buy, or who can’t take up an offer of a college place because they have nowhere to stay.
“We’re talking about people who go to bed tonight in emergency accommodation because the likes of Simon Harris and others around the Cabinet table fails to deal with the housing crisis, and indeed, it gets worse under their watch.”
The party’s spokesperson for housing, Eoin O Broin, defended its policy to phase out Government schemes to help homebuyers.
“The challenge with Help to Buy is it pushes up house prices. That means one group of people are locked out of buying a home, but it also means a number of people become dependent on it because it’s the only way they can bridge that gap,” Mr O Broin added.
“We’re absolutely clear you can’t abolish it straight away. There are people and builders and buyers who have priced that in to their calculations this year, next year or the year after.”
He also said that 30% of their housing system will be social and affordable homes.
“We’re making a very, very significant commitment that the increase in output from 2025 to 2029 is going to be weighted for social, affordable in terms of the increase to deliver that housing need,” he added.
Ms McDonald said that housing can be affordable for everyone.
“So this is the time for ambition, for urgency and for pace,” she added.
“This is the time for delivery. The plan we present today is game-changing. It will drive major change and direction that’s so badly needed.
“It’s a plan to end the crisis and to shape a new era in housing.”
