Sinn Féin calls for end to Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ‘stranglehold’ on housing

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

House prices will continue to rise until 2029 if Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael return to power, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson has said.

Eoin Ó Broin urged voters to end the two Civil War parties’ “stranglehold” on housing policy and called for a greater focus on social and affordable home delivery.

“The reason homelessness is rising is because Simon Harris is Taoiseach, Micheal Martin is Tánaiste and Darragh O’Brien is Minister for Housing,” Mr Ó Broin said at an event at the Teachers Club in Dublin on Saturday.

“If we want to end homelessness, we’ve got to end their stranglehold on housing policy.”

The housing spokesperson said that the proportion of young people who own their home has collapsed compared to the 1990s, from 60 per cent to 30 per cent, and that this was forcing young people to either emigrate or stay at home with their parents.

He also said the rise in house prices since the government formed in 2020 had been “astronomical”, and claimed that average house prices in Dublin had increased by €125,000.

Sinn Féin’s Housing for All plan pledges to deliver 31,500 affordable homes through local government housing bodies at prices of €250,000 “or slightly above that”, he said.

Sinn Féin is also vowing to phase out schemes for first-time buyers – the Help to Buy and the First Home schemes – arguing that they are adding to house prices.

The Government parties have said the schemes are vital for helping first-time buyers afford to buy a home amid inflated prices – with the latest figures showing prices are increasing by 10 per cent a year.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have also questioned Sinn Féin’s housing plan, which includes a proposal to build affordable homes through the state retaining ownership of the land on which the houses are built.

The two main coalition parties have questioned the practicality of this and whether removing the first-time buyers’ grants would “pull the rug” from under young people.

Mr Ó Broin said that projections by the Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Mr Harris and the Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Mr Martin on when house prices would fall “shows the extent to which neither Micheal Martin nor Simon Harris understand anything about housing”.

Mr Harris said on Friday that house prices would become more affordable or fall when “50,000-60,000 homes a year” are being built, while Mr Martin has said house prices would begin to moderate when 45,000-50,000 homes a year are being built, estimating this would be around 2027 or 2028.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said he did not disagree with the assessment of Mr Martin, his party leader, but was wary of making predictions.

Mr Ó Broin said of the predictions: “If you go back to the Celtic Tiger, 2006, 90,000 homes were built that year, highest number of homes in the history of the state – house prices kept rising.

“This idea that housing delivery, in and of itself, will bring down prices is simply not the case.

“In fact, the vast majority of housing economists and housing policy experts around the world tell us that what you have to do is not only increase the number of homes but it’s the type of homes and the price of the homes that is key.”

“My view is if Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are left in government for the next five years, house prices will rise throughout that period, as they have done not just throughout the last five years but since 2011.”

He added: “One of the reasons why homelessness has continued to rise over the last two to three years is because exits from emergency accommodation into the private rental sector have collapsed, and the government’s delivery of new social homes hasn’t been sufficient.

“Fine Gael is proposing to keep the target at about 10,000 a year out to 2030, maybe have about 12,000 then. Fianna Fáil is suggesting maybe an average of 12,000.

“At an absolute minimum, we need to get an average of 15,000 – that would mean by 2027, 2028, you’re hitting 16,000, 17,000, 18,000 new-build social homes a year.”

Asked about how fast a change in housing there would be if Sinn Féin were in the next government, Mr Ó Broin said “things can be done at pace”.

“We will be delivering affordable homes for working people to purchase at a price of 250,000, 260,000, 270,000 in year one, as well as two, three and four, ramping up to that 32,000 (affordable homes) over the six years.”

“We’ve set out very clearly how you could end homelessness for the over-55s in one year, and year-on-year dramatically reduce the number of families with children in emergency accommodation.

“So things may not be done overnight, but things can be done at pace and at that speed, but only if you have the political will,” he said.