1 in 3 Homes Built By The Affordable Housing Delivery Body Could Be Sold at Market Prices
1 in 3 Homes Built By The Affordable Housing Delivery Body Could Be Sold at Market Prices
Text: Izzy Copestake
This proposal is likely to be highly controversial, as it would effectively enable homes built on the State’s land to be sold on the private market at full market prices in Dublin and Cork.
Proposed changes to rules around the State’s affordable housing agency would allow the Land Development Agency to sell up to 30% of the homes on the private market at full market prices. This legislation is set to be progressed later this year.
The Land Development Agency describes itself as “the State’s affordable housing delivery body. It delivers affordable homes on State-owned or acquired land and through homebuilder partnerships as part of its Project Tosaigh initiative.”
The Irish Times has reported that it is understood that the reason behind this change is to recycle the proceeds of private sales to build more homes elsewhere and also to provide a better mix of housing types within the LDA’s developments: social, affordable and private.
Currently, different rules apply depending on the size of a town or city. In Dublin and Cork, where populations exceed 150,000, the LDA must reserve 80% of homes for social, affordable or cost-rental housing. A separate planning requirement under Part V accounts for the remaining 20%, meaning that, in effect, all homes built by the LDA on State land in Dublin and Cork are currently social, affordable or cost-rental.
In smaller towns, the LDA is currently only required to reserve 50% of homes, meaning that once the separate 20% Part V requirement is added, 70% of homes must be social, affordable or cost-rental, while the remaining 30% can be sold at full market prices. The Government is now looking to apply this 70:30 model to Dublin and Cork.
This proposal is likely to be highly controversial, as it would effectively enable homes built on the State’s land to be sold on the private market at full market prices in Dublin and Cork.
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