Councils look to activate more housing sites in Dublin

The four Dublin local authorities have launched a new initiative to support the Dublin housing market and are looking to activate or complete housing sites with planning permissions across the city and county.

They have issued a joint call to home builders and housing developers to offer the four councils houses and apartments with planning permission in unbuilt or partially commenced developments under a scheme which provides for the advance purchase of turnkey residential units for social and affordable housing.

AnnMarie Farrelly, the Fingal County Council Chief Executive who is also chair of the Dublin Housing Delivery Group, said that priority will be given to high-quality projects that can be delivered quickly and also provide value for money.

“We estimate that there are over 55,000 houses and apartments on about 280 sites across the Dublin region that have planning permission but have not been started and there are more that are incomplete,” said Ms Farrelly.

Under this scheme the four local authorities will purchase the homes in advance, in order to activate or reboot the project. When the homes are completed, they will be allocated to people on the housing list, sold as affordable homes, or made available for cost rental as part of an affordable housing scheme.

The four councils will consider turnkey residential units in completed developments, or in developments due for completion in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. They are also open to joint venture arrangements that include delivery of social and affordable homes with an Approved Housing Body. 

The Chief Executive of Dublin City Council, Owen Keegan, said: “The four councils will also consider proposals splitting developments into phases and taking homes across multiple schemes. We are open to sitting down with builders and developers and hearing their proposals because the aim of this scheme is to increase local authority housing stock as well as the amount of affordable homes available for sale or through cost rental.”

The Chief Executive of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Frank Curran, said: “We want to sign contracts with developers and builders that will allow us to get construction underway during 2023 and thereby secure additional supply of social and affordable homes over the next two to three years.”

Applications to each Council will be assessed under criteria that includes the delivery programme, with the priority on the early delivery of completed houses and apartments; the suitability and need for social and affordable housing at a location; value for money; and quality of design and construction in accordance with Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage requirements.

Colm Ward, Chief Executive of South Dublin County Council, said: “Housing is the biggest issue for citizens in Dublin and this scheme is part of a concerted effort on behalf of the four Dublin Local Authorities to increase the supply of social and affordable homes by providing a high degree of certainty that will allow a builder or a developer to get onto a site to build the houses and apartments they already have planning permission for.”

Details of the scheme are available from the website of each of the four Dublin local authorities