Ireland’s housing sector will receive a €696M boost under a government package designed to ease the ongoing crisis.

The move follows a warning from the Economic and Social Research Institute that Ireland will keep missing its housing targets, with just 33,000 homes due in 2025 and 37,000 in 2026.

These projections fall short of the government’s targets of 41,000 homes in 2025 and 43,000 in 2026 and come after the Central Bank cut its 2024 forecast to 32,500 units.

More than €250M will go toward extending a scheme that scraps local authority development fees and refunds water and wastewater connection charges, measures first rolled out in April 2023 and due to expire in December.

Social housing will get €184M, including €100M for Approved Housing Bodies and €84M for councils. A further €114M will go to AHBs via the Cost Rental Equity Loan scheme, plus €14M for private-sector cost rental projects.

The package also provides €38M for the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, €50M for local authorities to acquire homes under the tenant in-situ program, and €60M for the Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme to address structural defects.

“In recent years, we’ve made significant progress in delivering new housing and launching schemes that have provided secure homes for thousands of individuals and families at a scale not seen since the 1970s,” Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage James Browne said in a statement, as he claimed the funding will deliver 4,600 new social and affordable housing units.

“The scale of the challenge we have demands continued and intensified effort. This funding allocation is a key part of that ongoing response.”