Housing strategy: The Government's five pillars to tackle the crisis
Most observers say it is too early to formally assess the rent caps introduced in December.
Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) were extended beyond Dublin and Cork to commuter towns and other cities in January. But the concern is that landlords in other areas will hike up rates ahead of any possible cap being introduced there.
There is uproar that towns such as Dundalk, Drogheda, Maynooth, Greystones as well as the cities of Waterford and Limerick have not been designated RPZs.
Some welcome the 4% annual rent rise cap, others say rates in fact should have been forced down or even at least linked to the consumer price index.
Zones could also be smaller and not electoral area sizes, suggest critics. But even Fianna Fail privately say some cap is better than none at all.
It may also be years before standards are improved. A recent audit of local authority inspections of rentals found failure rates amounted to 100% in six areas.
The Government plans to ringfence funds for local authority inspections from 2018 onwards, so a quarter of rentals are checked by 2021. But some argue this will be too little, too late.
Especially when rates are already extremely steep.
There is also pressure to ease rental pressures by returning run down rental stock to the market as well as calls to regulate Airbnb so more units are freed up for tenants, especially in cities.
The Government has promised to help double the number of new homes constructed annually to 25,000 by 2021.
Eight months since the launch of Rebuilding Ireland, Department of Environment data shows 14,932 new homes were completed in 2016, an increase of 18% on 2015.
The figures are based on ESB connections.
Planning permissions were also granted for 16,375 new homes in 2016, a 26% rise on the previous year.
It could be argued then that the Government is more than half way to meeting its annual new build target. It is early yet though.
There is criticism about proposals from Government to sell off State lands for development.
It is also unclear to what extent builders or foreign investors have jumped at the idea of constructing here, as claimed by Housing Minister Simon Coveney.
An independent assessment is also needed on what it costs to actually build new homes, critics say.
A proposed €200m infrastructure fund to encourage development has also been oversubscribed, with €800m in plans lodged by local authorities, Sinn Féin notes.
Moreover, Independent TDs warn that selling lands at discount prices to developers will result in only 20% of units going to social housing, 20% to affordable renting while the builder sells the 50% left to private buyers. This is based on pilot projects in Dublin.
The Government has promised to build 47,000 new social housing units by 2021 at a cost of €5.3bn. It is a huge commitment, especially after almost a decade which saw little or no social housing development.
Other measures to reduce the estimated 90,000-long social housing waiting list include expanding Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) for renters and increasing the number of mixed housing developments.
The facts are social housing new builds were among the lowest in the state’s history last year. Only 652 new social housing units were built. While the department notes over 18,000 social housing solutions were delivered, two thirds of these involved HAP payments.
The rest included reusing void units, councils buying existing stock and leasing homes among options.
The issue is the huge backlog in social housing development.
Furthermore, there are mixed views about whether state funds should go towards new builds or doing up vacant properties.
Housing agencies point to the fact there are over 200,000 empty properties nationwide.
But Labour points to the limited success of the ‘living over the shop’ or ‘living city’ schemes.
The take-up there has been low.
Critics also claim that putting families onto HAP schemes just fudges the situation and is not a long term solution.
Local authorities again and again also come under criticism for their slow building records and more of a stick approach is needed to ensure social housing demands are met, say Opposition TDs.
Minister Simon Coveney’s promise to end the use of emergency accommodation for the homeless in hotels and B&Bs by the end of June is bold.
His predecessors set targets that were never reached. This one is a key for Coveney’s leadership ambitions as well as for Fine Gael as a whole.
There are still 700 families living in hotels and B&B accommodation. As part of the plan to tackle homelessness, the Government promised 200 rapid-build homes by the end of 2016, a further 800 this year, and a further 1,500 next year.
Just 22 have been built so far in Poppintree, Dublin. It has failed here so far — despite many units awaiting construction. Some €250m was made available this year for emergency accommodation and Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).
The funds are there, says Government. But numbers without homes spiked in December and January this year — despite the usual expected seasonal drop.
With solutions promised, the concern is that families get long-term solutions, especially when it comes to the welfare of children who have been forced to live out of bags in hotels.
Agencies such as Threshold say, however, that soaring rents are a main reason for families finding themselves on the streets.
Coveney’s promise is ambitious, concede agencies, but they welcome that someone is at least trying to end the use of hotels and B&Bs for the homeless.
The occupation of Apollo House in Dublin city centre over Christmas rightly focused minds on the need to solve the homelessness crisis. Such actions could be revisited if promises are not kept by the Government.
Agencies on the frontline also admit that more joined-up thinking is needed to help solve the problem in the long term. This is especially so now, given the huge funds ringfenced to help people.
This is one of the more vague areas as part of the five-pillar approach.
There are a number of promised measures here to increase the number of housing units overall.
These include local authorities doing up and reletting vacant units.
The housing agency has also been tasked with buying vacant homes from banks and reintroducing them onto the market.
There is also the repair and leasing scheme, designed to help owners prepare their properties for the rental market.
In addition, the Government continues to try and push local authorities to do up ghost estates and housing developments that were left half-finished or without facilities after the property crash.
There is concern that the local authority buy and renovate scheme will only allow for a limited number of vacant properties to be refurbished and put back on the market by councils.
Opposition TDs say only about 3% of the empty housing stock nationwide might be reused under this scheme.
While there could be some scope for abuse under schemes to get existing stock opened up again, most politicians agree that this is the best approach.
But there is some concern that the investment here is limited.
Potentially, less than 7,000 units may be made fit for living in, out of the estimated 200,000 empty units nationwide, under proposed schemes with Rebuilding Ireland, according to TDs.
This is expecially so in Dublin where there are an estimated 40,000 empty properties and where the housing crisis is most acute.
Equally, while the repair and lease scheme funding for existing owners to do up properties to rent, with the loan of State funds, has gone from €6m to €32m, TDs say more could be spent here.
