It won’t have passed you by that the Government’s Housing for All strategy was published yesterday. It is available to read in full here.
The strategy consists of 4 key pathways:
- Pathway to Supporting Home Ownership and Increasing Affordability;
- Pathway to Eradicating Homelessness, Increasing Social Housing Delivery and Supporting Social Inclusion;
- Pathway to Increasing New Housing Supply; and
- Pathway to Addressing Vacancy and Efficient Use of Existing Stock.
Many of the key actions under each pathway have already been taken e.g. introduction of the Land Development Agency, the shared equity and cost rental schemes brought in by the Affordable Housing Act 2021, the expansion of Part V requirements from 10% to 20%, the extension of rent pressure zone designations to 2024 and the linking of RPZ rents to inflation.
However, it also touches on further developments which are yet to come e.g.:
- the introduction of indefinite tenures for residential leases (note this is stated to be “subject to legal advice”) – expected Q4 2021;
- strengthening of the oversight of tenancies by the introduction of an annual registration process – timeline unspecified;
- increased enforcement of registration of tenancy requirements through measures such as the expansion of data-sharing arrangements between Revenue and the RTB – expected Q1 2023;
- amendment of the residential tenancies legislation to provide for default conciliation as part of the dispute resolution process – expected Q1 2022;
- examination of the potential for creation of a system of deposit retention based on best international practice – expected Q2 2023;
- implementation of minimum BER standards for the private rental sector – expected Q1 2025;
- ending long term leasing of social housing by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies and focus on delivery models which ensure long term ownership of social housing homes – expected by end 2025;
- develop active land management powers with fairer sharing of the increase in land values resulting from zoning decisions via a new system of Land Value Sharing (securing a proportion of the value uplift of a development site, tracked from zoning to planning permission) – expected Q4 2021;
- develop proposals for new Urban Development Zones – expected Q4 2021;
- introduce new planning process for large scale residential developments to replace the Strategic Housing Development process – expected Q4 2021;
- reform of judicial review process and introduction of new division of the High Court for planning and environmental cases to reduce planning delays – expected Q2 2022;
- comprehensive review and consolidation of planning legislation – expected to commence Q1 2022;
- introduction of a new tax to activate vacant lands for residential purposes, to replace the vacant site levy – expected Q4 2021.;
- introduction of a new vacant property tax (on residential homes) – collection of data to commence Q2 2022;
- commencement of s9 of the Local Government Rates and Other Matters Act 2019 with a view to empowering local authorities to offer rates-based incentives for the conversion of suitable vacant commercial properties to residential use – expected Q1 2022;
- development of new regulatory controls requiring short-term and holiday lets (ie Air BnB type arrangements) to register with Fáilte Ireland with a view to ensuring that homes are used to best effect in areas of housing need – expected Q2 2022;
- regulatory reform under Multi Unit Developments legislation to ensure owner management companies are financially stable and provide for expenditure of a non-recurring nature (i.e. sinking funds) – expected Q4 2022;
- examination of measures to accelerate conveyancing as part of the sale and land transfer process – expected Q4 2022.
We will keep you advised as each of these developments come on stream.
For further information on this topic, please contact Aoife Smyth, Knowledge Lawyer or any member of A&L Goodbody’s Real Estate team.