Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien is preparing to introduce regulations that will allow councils to make developers reserve up to half of homes in a new housing estate for first-time buyers, the Sunday Times claims in a report, citing Government sources. The first-time buyers’ allocation is among the measure that Mr O’Brien and Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe will bring to Cabinet this week in a bid to discourage investment funds from bulk-buying family homes in finished estates. In effect, so-called cuckoo funds will be prohibited from bulk-buying estates which contain less than 50 houses per hectare. In 2019, Urbeo bulk-purchased nearly two-thirds of the 143 new-build homes in Carton Grove housing estate in Maynooth, which contains 126 houses and 15 apartments. Ms Martin will bring its report to Cabinet this week, it said.

Source: The Irish Times May 16, 2021 10:07 UTC