Minister for Housing James Browne Responds To Latest DAFT.ie Report and Wexford Housing Challenges

In a wide-ranging interview on South East Radio’s Morning Mix today (Monday June 23rd), Housing Minister, Wexford TD James Browne addressed serious concerns raised by the latest DAFT.ie report, which showed a 14.6% increase in house prices in Wexford over the past year, outpacing the national average of 12.3%.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, house prices nationally have surged by nearly 60%, largely due to a lack of housing supply—especially in the secondhand market.

Minister Browne acknowledged the depth of the crisis, reaffirming that the housing shortage is at the heart of rising prices and homelessness. He outlined several recent and upcoming measures aimed at increasing supply and addressing systemic bottlenecks. These include the establishment of a Housing Activation Office, planning reforms, zoning changes, and a renewed focus on making land development viable, particularly in counties like Wexford where high construction costs and low market values deter building. He said that Wexford is one of the best-performing counties in terms of housebuilding and promised more funding despite the county not featuring in a recent €625 million allocation for social housing.

On rent control, Minister Browne defended the new nationwide Rent Pressure Zones, stating that they offer protection to both existing and new tenants. He highlighted legislation that limits rent increases to inflation or 2%, whichever is lower, and new tenancy rules that will increase security of tenure and remove landlord incentives to evict tenants just to reset rents. He responded directly to a case raised by a listener of a 69-year-old pensioner facing a 50% rent hike, stating such increases are now illegal under the new legislation and urged the individual to contact his office or advocacy groups like Threshold.

Addressing planning challenges in Wexford, including out-of-date local development plans and zoning issues in towns like Gorey and Enniscorthy, Minister Browne pledged to strip back bureaucratic hurdles. He announced plans to write to all local authorities within weeks directing them to rezone land and update local area plans. He blamed systemic delays involving other state bodies and announced steps to streamline planning processes, such as reducing the power of An Bord Pleanála to block housing, limiting judicial reviews, and removing minor applications (like home extensions) from planners’ workloads.

Finally, the Minister confirmed that Wexford would receive additional funding for housing in upcoming allocations and reassured the 3,000 households on the housing list that his department is committed to delivering more social, affordable, and private homes. A new National Housing Plan and development targets are expected later this summer.

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