A total of €2.3 billion has been allocated for housing programmes in 2019 in this year’s Budget.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said this represented an increase of €470 million, or 26%, on 2018.
Some €1.25 billion of this fund will be allocated for the delivery of 10,000 new social homes through a combination of construction, acquisition and leasing.
An extra €121m has also been set aside for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) to provide an additional 16,760 new tenancies next year.
There is also €60m extra in capital funding, much of which will fund additional emergency accommodation and for additional family hubs.
An additional €30 million is being provided for homeless services bringing the total allocation to €146 million for 2019.
The Minister said he intended to increase the Serviced Sites Fund from €100 million to €310 million over 3 years to support local authorities in bringing forward lands for subsidised, more affordable housing.
Paschal Donohoe said it would facilitate the delivery of 6,000 affordable homes over the fund's lifetime.
For landlords, the Minister announced that he was increasing the threshold on mortgage interest that's tax deductible from 85% at present to 100%.
