What’s in store for the real estate sector under the Programme for Government 2025?

Infrastructure and Development (General)

A dedicated Infrastructure Division is to be established in the re-named Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. The Division will be tasked with working with stakeholders to advise government on strategic project selection and prioritisation and ultimately, delivery and implementation of the National Development Plan.

Aligned with this, to support value for public money from infrastructure projects, the programme for government also proposes a review of the current Infrastructure Guidelines and the introduction of a Public Investment Act, requiring sponsoring agencies to meet timelines on development of project appraisals and other evaluations. The aim is to reduce delays in decision making and embed value for money across all capital projects.

The programme also promises steps towards fulfilment of climate targets and sustainability commitments, among them the enactment of legislation in 2025 to accelerate the roll out of district heating systems. The Recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive entered into force on 28 May 2024. It will need to be transposed into national law by 29 May 2026, so that further advances towards that may be expected also (see our previous briefing on that here).

The programme includes a commitment to the previous government’s proposals for the imposition of a ‘zoning value payment’ on developers as a condition of relevant planning permissions. At the time of writing the previous government’s Land (Zoning Value Sharing) Bill has not yet been restored to the Dáil order paper and so it remains to be seen whether the proposal of the last government will advance as it had been initiated or emerge in a different form.

The new government is, however, clearly and fully committed to implementation of the newly enacted Planning and Development Act 2024, expected to take place gradually over the coming years.

A new Building Standards Regulatory Authority is also to be set up to strengthen the oversight role of the State in the proper design and construction of buildings, which suggests further regulation in this space also.

Housing Sector - Supply

Increased levels of development will be necessary to fulfil the promised delivery of 300,000 homes by the end of 2030. Among the changes proposed in the government’s programme to support housing delivery are:

• new legislation to provide statutory bodies with streamlined and strengthened powers of compulsory purchase to activate under-utilised land for home building;
• the introduction of statutory timelines for pre-connections for water / waste water and energy connection agreements, to ensure large developments can proceed without delay; and
• the integration of existing Housing Delivery Groups into a new Strategic Housing & Infrastructure Delivery Office under the Minister for Housing to help coordinate and accelerate home building by unblocking and co-ordinating investment in the servicing of zoned lands for homebuilding.

While not quite as envisaged in its report, we might expect the new Strategic Housing & Infrastructure Delivery Office, combined with strengthened compulsory purchase powers for relevant bodies, to go some way towards implementing the recommendation of the Housing Commission that housing policy and delivery be overseen and implemented by an expert body and supported by appropriate powers to overcome obstacles to delivery.

While proposals for a “starter home” scheme is new, much of the new programme for government otherwise speaks of continuing to implement or of expanding legislation and housing policies that are already familiar to us. STAR continues to feature, as does the First Home scheme and Help to Buy with cost rental remaining a firm corner stone of government policy on the provision of affordable homes.

Residential Rental Sector

The regulation of residential tenancies is set to remain in the spotlight, with the programme for government setting out commitments to review the effectiveness of the rent pressure zones, to establish a rent price register to increase transparency, new statutory timelines for dealing with complaints and to generally enhance the enforcement powers of the Residential Tenancies Board.

Of all of these, the outcome of the current ongoing review of rent pressure zones as a system of rent control will be most keenly watched by the market in terms of its potential impact on private investment.

The proposal of the previous government for tenants to have a right to bid to purchase property if the landlord is terminating their tenancy is not referenced in the programme, so that it remains to be seen what place this will have in further regulation of the sector, if any.

Short term tourism lettings should also expect to be further regulated, with the EU’s Short Term Rental Regulation, adopted in April 2024, due to be transposed in Ireland by May 2026.

Conclusion

The Programme for Government 2025 frames our expectation of the legal changes that lie ahead for the next five years. Further insights and first steps towards the implementation of all of these policies will come with the publication of the government’s Spring legislation programme.