According to Darragh O’Brien, the Housing Minister, nearly 50,000 residences have been granted planning consent in the past three years, with stipulations preventing financial institutions or corporations from acquiring large amounts of individual properties. The restrictions resulted from amendments to the planning regulations in 2021, following a public outrage over the bulk acquisition of numerous properties in housing estates in Maynooth and Lucan by investment funds.
During the previous three years, Mr. O’Brien stated that 49,828 homes and duplexes were granted planning consent, with restrictions on bulk buying or selling multiple properties to a single buyer to ensure they are “earmarked for owner-occupiers.” He mentioned that almost 20,000 of these homes were specifically reserved last year alone.
These planning adjustments are part of a suite of government actions aimed at preventing the bulk acquisition of homes and promoting individual home ownership. Other steps include a ten percent stamp duty on the total purchase of more than ten residential properties within a year.
Minister O’Brien stated, “In May 2021, I brought in changes to the planning system to shield traditional family homes from commercial institutional investors acquiring them in numbers that put them in competition with the owner-occupier market.” He added, that the details confirmed that this intervention was successful, it balanced the scales for traditional home buyers, especially first-time purchasers, while continuing to encourage investment in the building of new homes, especially those high-density flats that wouldn’t have been built otherwise. He insisted that alongside limiting bulk acquisitions, the government is also increasing the housing supply.
Recently, Ryanair acquired the majority of homes in a new development near Dublin Airport, intending to lease them to staff members. Despite his frustration with Ryanair’s decision, Mr. O’Brien acknowledged that the Sword’s development predates the changes in planning laws that would have barred the purchase.
According to a recent report by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), while about 80 percent of people over 40 in the Republic own their homes, only a third of those under 40 are homeowners. This age disparity was found to be the second largest among the 15 European countries included in the study.