A report by the Land Development Agency has found that almost 15,000 homes could be constructed by 2032 on State-owned land.
CEO of Property Districts Carol Tallan told Newstalk Breakfast this could be positive news – if the opportunity to build these homes is seized on.
“This is positive insofar as it refers to State-owned land, but obviously we are getting used to this continuous letdown of numbers,” she said.
“This is a body that had been tasked to build 150,000 new homes before 2040, now it looks like it’s going to be stretched to build one tenth of that by 2032, in the next seven years.
“So, I think we’ve gotten used to maybe disappointingly slow starts.
“But on the other side of it, there was just under 1,000 homes delivered last year, they’re on target for over 2,000 next year, three and a half thousand the year after.”
New Housing Construction. Photo: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie. 11/01/2022Ms Tallon said this is a great thing so long as this success continues to compound.
“The State has been the largest land hoarder in Ireland,” she said.
“I think what’s actually happening here is that we’re seeing the LDA five years in is learning what any developer, public or private sector, five-years in learns – that it is incredibly difficult to develop homes in Ireland.
“In fact, just yesterday, alongside news of this report was news of local objections to an almost 200-unit scheme that the LDA is trying to deliver in north Dublin.
“So, here’s the thing; development is difficult, but rather than throwing additional resources at the LDA - an inexperienced developer - to buy non-State land, just give it the muscle it needs to deliver on land that it already has and then let the private sector develop what it can.”
According to Ms Tallon, the LDA has achieved as much as she would have expected from it in the five years since it was founded.
She said we have “gone past the point of debate of whether or not it should be there”, and now “what we need to do it give them muscle [and] get out of their way”.
Main image: The first of 800 homes that are to be constructed on a 100-acre site outside the town of Carrigaline. Image: David Creedon / Alamy. 29th April, 2017.
