The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, has published a progress update on the planning measures he introduced around two years ago to increase home ownership and restrict the practice of the bulk sale of homes across the country.
The update on housing shows that 31,000 homes received planning permission with conditions restricting the bulk buying or multiple sales to a single purchaser in the two-year period between May 2021 and May 2023, with the number of homes recorded in May 2023 effectively doubling from the 15,883 units recorded in May 2022.
The Ministerial Planning Guidelines are part of a series of government measures designed to prohibit the bulk buying of houses and duplexes in order to increase housing stock for home ownership.
Other measures include a 10% stamp duty levy on the cumulative purchase of 10 or more residential houses in a 12 month period.
Commenting on the data on housing in Ireland, the Minister O’Brien, said, “the government is committed to supporting homeownership and to supporting first-time buyers. This data demonstrates that we have made the right interventions while continuing to point investment to where it is needed. As well as restricting bulk buying, we are also boosting supply through our plan, Housing for All, with recent data for new home commencements and completions at record levels. The dream of owning a home is becoming a reality for more and more people and we intend to keep this momentum going as we meet – and exceed – our annual targets.”
The breakdown of the 31,000 restrictions includes cases where An Bord Pleanála applied the planning condition prohibiting multiple sales (12,893 house and duplex units across all planning permissions) and where Local Authorities permitted schemes to proceed with a condition attached to prohibit multiple sales of homes (18,111 residential units).
