Funding totalling €168m has been allocated for the delivery of 849 new cost rental and affordable purchase homes across ten different local authorities in Ireland.

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne TD, announced the allocation which will further increase the supply of affordable, high-quality housing for both buyers and renters in high-demand areas across Ireland.

A total of €156m of the allocation will be used towards cost rental homes for the following developments:

• Cork City: 358 new cost rental homes

• Fingal: 141 new cost rental homes

• Galway City: 75 new cost rental homes

• Meath: 51 new cost rental homes

• South Dublin: 30 new cost rental homes

• Louth: 23 new cost rental homes

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• Westmeath: 8 new cost rental homes.

Speaking about the funding for new cost rental homes, Minister Browne emphasised: "The overwhelming popularity of affordable cost rental homes, with most schemes in high demand, highlights the success of this model and our approach. To meet this demand, we need to scale up supply, and these approvals represent a significant expansion."

Under the cost rental scheme, rents are at least 25% below comparable market rates for the area with some developments achieving discounted rates of up to 33%.

Already, over 2,640 cost rental homes have been delivered by Approved Housing Bodies, Local Authorities and the Land Development Agency. There is a delivery pipeline of more than 8,600 cost rental homes.

Meanwhile, funding of over €11.8m was allocated to support the delivery of 163 new affordable purchase homes.

These will be delivered in: Cork City (86 homes), Wexford (36 homes), Meath (14 homes), Monaghan (10 homes), Limerick (9 homes) and Louth (8 homes).

This affordable purchase delivery pipeline continues to grow with over 3,800 affordable purchase homes approved for support from the Affordable Housing Fund.

Minister Browne added: "The affordable purchase scheme offers first-time buyers and fresh-starters the opportunity to purchase homes at below market rates. Like the cost-rental scheme, it has been an extremely popular initiative with a high degree of interest in schemes advertised to date."