The Tánaiste said he wanted the country to get back to 70% home ownership by the end of the decade.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has set a new target to have 40,000 homes built every year, in order to get home ownership levels in Ireland back to 70% by the decade’s end.
He made the comments on Saturday at Fine Gael’s Ard Fheis in which he said that the dream of owning a home is “out of reach for far too many”.
Varadkar said: “This dream, this promise, must again become a reality. We must renew the social contract and make owning our own home a fundamental part of it.
“Tonight, I want to set a target of getting back to 70% home ownership by the end of the decade. This will require getting up to 40,000 new homes built every year, double where we are now.”
The Tánaiste said this would be done through public and private investment.
He added: “Fine Gael as a party will champion the building of new communities and new homes – social, shared ownership, cost rental, student accommodation, homes to rent and above all, homes to buy.
“Housing is a human right, but it means nothing just to say it, fight for it or write it into law. You have to mean it and make it happen.
“This means voting for new housing, not against it. It means new and stronger protection for renters, it means encouraging investment, not chasing it away and it means helping first-time buyers to get a deposit and a mortgage they can afford.”
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