"Estonia has come a long way in its construction development, our construction is modern, high-tech and with low CO2 emissions. We have many good success stories to share - for example - the modern methods of construction industry, factory reconstruction or the rental housing program. The latter has been a success all over Estonia: 87% of the apartments are full and the program significantly improves the availability of housing in rural areas with a market failure. We have a lot to learn from our colleagues in Ireland in terms of the scale of supporting the development of affordable housing," said Minister of Infrastructure Vladimir Svet.
Under Ireland’s Housing for All Plan, Ireland is investing heavily in the delivery of new housing. Housing for All is a multi-annual, multi-billion euro plan which is improving Ireland’s housing system and deliver more homes of all types for people with different housing needs. Every year, around 4 billion euros of public money is channeled into the development of affordable homes. As a result of the measures implemented through this plan there is strong momentum in the delivery of new homes and significant progress on fundamental reforms. The transformation to date under Housing for All now means Ireland will scale up their ambition and target even higher levels of delivery over the coming years.
The meeting discussed how to design the construction policy in such way that it would encourage the implementation of modern and environmentally friendly construction methods. Ireland’s representatives explained that Housing for All is not only providing thousands of homes to people today, but also fundamentally reforming the housing sector so future delivery is assured. Recent measures include progress in far-reaching reform of the planning system and the promotion of innovation in the construction sector.
In addition, the Irish were interested in the Estonian climate-proof economy law and carbon footprint calculation methods. Estonian authorities shared an overview of the implementation of low-carbon construction principles in Estonian building standards. A construction permit based on the building's information model also gained interest, which helps to speed up procedures thanks to automatic checks. It is one of the latest e-government services, which is also showing interest in other European countries.
During the week, the Irish will meet with several Estonian wooden house manufacturers and authorities, house factories and buildings will be visited. For example, the companies Harmet, Kodumaja and Arcwood will present their production units, Timbeco's newly completed modular kindergarten in Vaela, and the alliance procurement model will also be presented in Tampere using the example of apartment buildings built by house manufacturer Matek.
