AIB and Bank of Ireland have each invested €35 million into US investor Avenue Capital’s residential fund, which now has capacity to stimulate delivery of 12,000 homes. The announcement of fresh capital being injected into the fund has come as Avenue Capital confirmed an investment of up to €100 million by its fund in a joint venture with Joe O’Reilly’s development firm Castlethorn.Last year, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (Isif) provided a €150 million seed commitment to the fund run by the US investor.The combined €70 million investment into the Avenue Homebuilder Capital Solutions Fund by the two banks has brought total commitments to the fund up to €220 million. Avenue Capital established the fund in December 2025 to provide capital to medium- and large-sized Irish residential developers to enable them scale up, acquire land and increase their housing output. The fund plans to support home builders to acquire land and activate sites that can deliver more than 12,000 homes countrywide. Will the upcoming budget drive inflation and increase costs for Irish households? Listen | 29:13Avenue Homebuilder Capital Solutions Fund has targeted to make individual investments of between €30 million and €100 million. The fund has previously backed Patrick Durkan-led D/RES Properties to buy a large bank in Dublin. Its latest arrangement with Castlethorn will help support the delivery of more than 7,000 homes.Castlethorn, led by group managing director Ronan Columb, has been involved in residential construction for more than 35 years and is one of the largest private developers in the country. Earlier this year, the company said it was active on eight individual sites in the Greater Dublin Area with capacity for 5,700 homes,Avenue Europe Funds co-head Pádraig Moore said the investment by the banks would help “make real inroads” into the country’s housing needs. “Avenue is delighted to partner with Bank of Ireland and AIB to provide much-needed equity capital to leading Irish home builders.” Bank of Ireland’s head of corporate and commercial banking John Feeney said the bank has been a big lender to the residential development sector and these extra funds would help address the State’s housing needs.“Equity finance can help established Irish home builders scale up their operations, invest in growth and bring forward larger development pipelines,” said Feeney.AIB managing director of capital markets Cathy Bryce said the funds would help “deliver much-needed new homes ... across the country”.