There is "no guarantee" full savings made on building new homes will be passed on to the purchaser.
That is according to Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien, who was speaking as a new €1 billion housing plan aims to increase stock and drive down the cost of construction.
The Government has committed €750 million to the Land Development Agency and other developers to provide 4,000 to 6,000 additional cost-rental apartments.
The measures will look to reduce the cost by scrapping development levies required to connect new homes with roads, water and other services for the next 12 months.
It is thought this will save up to €12,650 on average per home.
The speed at which vacant and derelict properties are renovated for new housing will also be increased.
Minister O'Brien told The Hard Shoulder apartments are of a particular concern.
"What still remains a challenge... is the development of apartments in particular," he said.
"We'll monitor this as it goes forward, it is a real reduction in construction costs and will help - I believe - [to] get further units and get further shovels into the ground to increase that supply further".
'Helping with viability'
Minister O'Brien admits there is no guarantee the savings will be passed on to buyers.
"There's no guarantee that the full saving is going to be passed on," he said.
"But what I think this will do, particularly for larger developments, is help with their viability.
"I've kind of got to make a choice between seeing things being built or not.
"If this tips the balance between marginal development which may not have happened, and now will happen by increasing supply right across the country, I think that is a good thing.
"This will apply as well to people who are building their own home".
'A large portion is cost'
Minister O'Brien has said these new benefits will also apply to homes already planning to be built.
"There is no question that some who will benefit from the waiver, there are homes that would have been built anyway," he said.
"From the research that we've done, and very detailed research in that regard - if you take even within our cities - we've 80/90,000 unactivated planning permissions.
"A large portion of that is indeed cost.
"We would earnestly want as well some of these cost savings to be passed on to the home purchaser.
"We have schemes in place, like the First Home Scheme and the Help-to-Buy, that's really taken off very well in the last number of months".
Minister O'Brien said this is to "catch up on 10/12 years of very significant undersupply."
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