The Republic needs to become a “welcoming home” for foreign institutional investors in order to meet the estimated €20 billion cost of meeting the Government’s new target for 50,000 homes to be built a year, Minister for Finance Michael McGrath has warned. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
“We have to be grown up and acknowledge that we have a great funding need that the State alone cannot meet,” the Minister said at conference organised by Banking & Payments Federation Ireland in Dublin on Tuesday. About 33,000 homes a year are currently being developed, with much of this supported by the State. A total of about €5 billion was allocated by the State for home construction this year equating to 36 per cent of the estimated €13.6 billion total development cost, the Department of Finance said in papers published in late May.‘I remember what it was like to count my pennies.
Tom Kinsella, managing director of the AIB’s Homes unit, highlighted that while the pillar banks “will not be found wanting” funding a portion of the total cost, they are bound by lending concentration limits brought in following the property bubble.