Government still wants funds in housing market but not at any price
Ministers and officials wary of chasing away source of funding needed for new projects
Mullen Park estate in Maynooth, Co Kildare, where a multinational investment company has bought 115 homes. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins
As the Government mulls its options on restricting the bulk purchase of family homes by investment funds, Ministers and senior officials are wary of chasing away a source of funding for desperately-needed new housing projects.
While Government has accepted in the last 24 hours the political necessity of stopping investment funds and trusts from buying outright estates of family homes, it will not, according to people involved in the process, shut out the funds from the housing sector completely. The Government wants the funds to continue their investments in Irish property, “to finance developments that might not otherwise happen”, as Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told the Dáil on Thursday.