Ireland’s sovereign development fund may soon announce investments meant to tackle lack of housing, according to the country’s debt management office.
The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), which last year already aimed to boost residential housing development through a €500m joint venture with KKR, is working on a further housing project, according to Conor O’Kelly, chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which houses the ISIF.
Speaking as the NTMA published its annual report for 2015, O’Kelly said of the ISIF: “I am pleased to report that the pipeline of investment opportunities being looked at by the Fund is healthy and varied, which augurs well for its investment programme over the coming years.”
The statement added that the ISIF was “working on initiatives that could help with housing supply”, while maintaining the sovereign fund’s commercial investment mandate.
The comments came as the Irish Times reported the ISIF could be a cornerstone investor in a new vehicle meant to invest in the social rented housing sector, under plans the newspaper said were set to be discussed by the Irish government in coming days.
The discussions come after the minority Fine Gael administration, backed by independent parliamentarians, drew up a programme for government with the aim of boosting residential housing supply.
In early May, a draft of the programme said the ISIF would be approached to “encourage the delivery of housing-related enabling infrastructure”.
