Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025–2030: What's in the Plan?

Ireland’s new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025–2030, is the Government’s latest attempt to respond to the severe pressures facing the housing system. Homelessness, affordability, and supply shortages are issues that continue to have a profound impact on quality of life in Ireland, despite being present for decades. The Government has framed this plan as a renewed whole-of-government effort to accelerate delivery and support communities.

At the core of the plan is a commitment to deliver 300,000 homes by 2030, including 72,000 social homes. This headline figure also includes affordable purchase homes, cost-rental homes, and private-market housing supply (both houses and apartments).

Before we deep dive into what the plan gets right, and where it falls short, it is worth sharing an overview of what the plan actually contains. This article outlines the main commitments, targets, and reforms the Government has proposed.

Two Central Pillars

The plan is structured around two main pillars.

Pillar 1: Activating Supply 

This pillar focuses on removing barriers to building homes faster and at scale. Key commitments include:

Zoned and Serviced Land / Planning Reform

• Fully implementing the Planning and Development Act 2024 to simplify and speed up the planning process.
• Accelerating the delivery of new urban communities, building on the successes in Clonburris and Adamstown.

Infrastructure Investment

• Expanding water, wastewater, energy, road and public transport infrastructure.
• Allocating €12.2 billion for the water sector and €3.5 billion in equity funding for energy grid infrastructure between 2026 and 2030.
• Introducing a €1 billion Infrastructure Investment Fund.
• Embedding the Housing Activation Office to improve coordination across agencies.

Modern Methods of Construction (MMC)

• Optimising NSAI’s Agrément Certification process to support innovative construction products.
• Doubling investment in the Built to Innovate programme.
• Targeting 25% MMC use in all new social and affordable homes.
• Introducing a renewed Action Plan to Promote Careers in Construction.
• Publishing a new five-year Apprenticeship Action Plan.

Facilitating Investment

Government emphasises its role as both a provider of social and affordable homes and an enabler of private and institutional investment. Key commitments include:

• Investing record Exchequer funding in housing, including almost €20 billion for social and affordable housing delivery.
• Capitalising the Land Development Agency with an additional €2.5 billion to expand its role.
• Supporting measures to attract domestic and international investment in housing.

Addressing Viability

To reduce the cost of building, particularly apartments and higher-density homes:

• Reducing VAT on apartments from 13.5% to 9%.
• Introducing an exemption from corporation tax for cost-rental homes.
• Introducing enhanced corporation tax deductions for housing delivery.

Tackling Vacancy and Dereliction

The plan states that vacancy and dereliction represent a major missed opportunity. Key commitments include:

• Introducing a new derelict property tax, collected by the Revenue Commissioners.
• Bringing 20,000 homes back into use via the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant.
• Extending the Living City Initiative to all residential properties built before 1975.

Overall, this pillar aims to remove bottlenecks such as planning delays, infrastructure constraints, and construction capacity issues, so that public, private and non-profit sectors can deliver more homes.

Pillar 2: Supporting People

The second pillar focuses on ensuring people can access and afford appropriate housing. It includes commitments such as:

Ending Homelessness

• Publishing a new National Homeless Prevention Framework.
• Allocating €100 million in capital funding to acquire second-hand homes to support families longest in emergency accommodation.
• Developing a Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan.
• Providing over 2,000 Housing First tenancies.
• Increasing social housing allocations to reduce long-term family homelessness.

Inclusive Housing for Older People, Disabled People, and Travellers

Government commits to targeted supports for groups facing specific housing challenges. Key actions include:

• Delivering more suitable housing options for older people.
• Implementing the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022–2027.
• Increasing funding for the Housing Adaptation Grant for Older and Disabled People.
• Continuing investment in high-quality Traveller-specific accommodation.

Delivering Social Homes

Government aims to deliver an average of 12,000 new social homes each year. Key measures include:

• A new single-stage approval process for eligible projects.
• Expanding and streamlining the operation of the Land Acquisition Fund.
• Financial incentives for local authorities that exceed their 'own build' social housing targets.
• Ensuring a balanced mix of social housing delivered by local authorities, AHBs and the LDA, based on strengthened Housing Delivery Action Plans.

Strengthening Rights and Protections for Renters

Key actions include:

• Introducing national rent controls.
• Reforming Rent Pressure Zones to promote new investment.
• Strengthening tenancy protections.
• Expanding the regulatory functions of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).
• Publishing a rent price register.
• Increasing regulation of the short-term letting sector.

Promoting Homeownership

To support first-time buyers, key actions include:

• Delivering an average of 15,000 affordable homeownership supports each year under the Starter Homes Programme.
• Expanding the LDA’s role in affordable housing.
• Continuing support through the Help to Buy and First Home schemes.

Investing in Towns, Villages and Cities

A renewed emphasis is placed on community wellbeing and regeneration. Key actions include:

• Supporting small and medium builders to develop mixed-tenure communities on serviced sites.
• Continuing investment in the Defective Concrete Block and Apartment Remediation Schemes.
• Publishing a National Planning Statement on rural housing.
• Advancing the Town Centre First model nationwide.

This pillar frames housing as a foundation for wellbeing, community stability and social inclusion. 

Social Justice Ireland welcomes the publication of Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025–2030. While many of the measures were announced earlier this year and in Budget 2026, the publication of the full strategy is still a welcome step. It is a broad strategy that seeks to respond to structural obstacles within Ireland’s housing system, including supply constraints, planning delays, affordability pressures and dereliction. We particularly welcome the strategy’s recognition of housing as a critical foundation for wellbeing, community and inclusion, as well as its stated commitment to ending homelessness — long-standing priorities that Social Justice Ireland has consistently highlighted. The renewed emphasis on vacancy and regeneration is also welcome.

The next article in this series will critically examine key aspects of the plan, assessing whether these actions are sufficient to create a fair and sustainable housing system, or whether key gaps remain.