Local Authorities Update Delivery Plans Under National Starter Homes Programme

Local authorities have begun updating their housing delivery action plans to outline how starter purchase and cost-rental homes will be delivered across their administrative areas.

Addressing parliamentary questions in the Dáil, Deputy James Browne outlined details of the Government's starter homes programme under the *Delivering Homes, Building Communities* framework. The programme targets an average of 15,000 affordable housing supports annually to 2030, covering both starter purchase and cost-rental properties.

Funding for the programme is routed through direct Exchequer affordability measures, the Land Development Agency, and Housing Finance Agency lending. In 2025, capital investment totalled just over €1 billion, delivering almost 9,300 starter purchase and cost-rental units nationwide, with €1.2 billion allocated for 2026.

To assist council-led projects, the Affordable Housing Fund provides development cost subventions of €50,000, €75,000, or €100,000 per starter purchase home, calibrated by unit density per hectare and scheme location. In Ireland's five cities, a higher subvention rate of €150,000 per home applies to cost-rental schemes. The Exchequer covers 95% of the approved subsidy, with local authorities providing the remaining 5% from local funds.

More than €766 million has been approved to date across 27 local authorities via the fund and its predecessor, the Serviced Sites Fund, covering upwards of 8,400 homes. From 2022 to the end of the first quarter of 2026, local authorities delivered more than 3,100 starter purchase and cost-rental homes.

Initial starter purchase scheme approvals were granted earlier this year to councils in Roscommon, Cavan, Donegal, and Tipperary. Each council's updated housing delivery action plan will be reviewed by the Department and published later in the year.