Sinn Féin’s housing strategy has “some good aspects”, the chief executive of home-builder Glenveagh has said, but it lacks a holistic approach to dealing with the housing crisis.
Stephen Garvey, chief executive of the Dublin-listed home-builder, praised the party’s ambition and said its focus on delivering social and affordable homes on State-owned lands is “a credible plan”.
Mr Garvey was speaking to reporters on Thursday after Glenveagh reported interim results, pointing to growing momentum within the business.
The company said it remained on track to deliver 2,700 homes this year, more than 800 of which were delivered in the first half of the year – double the number of completions compared with the same period in 2023.
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Asked for comment on Sinn Féin’s housing strategy launched earlier this week, Mr Garvey said: “I’d welcome that they published a housing plan. I think it was long overdue. They had various points they’ve made through the last number of years on housing, so it’s great to finally see that.”
While he said he has not “gone into [the plan] depth”, he said Sinn Féin has identified problems that are “under examination by the Government” also. “So I think what’s good about it is there’s consensus that things really need to change.”
Mr Garvey said the Coalition’s so-called housing-for-all strategy has “broad bandwidth”, covering different segments of the market, from first-time buyers to affordable purchase and cost rental. “The challenge I would be a little bit worried about is Sinn Féin policy seems to narrow that bandwidth, in that it concentrates on just a certain proportion of the market.”
He said delivering homes on State lands is “a credible plan”, but ultimately, land-acquisition costs represent only a fraction of the costs of delivering homes. Even the Land Development Agency, which was set up to activate projects on State-owned lands and has no site acquisition costs, is grappling with development costs, Mr Garvey said.
Commenting on Mr Garvey’s remarks, Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said the party’s strategy sets out “in quite some detail” how it will achieve its two main goals of increasing State investment and activating the private sector.
The party wants to remove “barriers to development” to allow big developers “like Glenveagh and the large number of SME builder-developers” to build more homes for purchase at “more moderated prices”, he told The Irish Times on Thursday.
“Ultimately the objective here is to have more new homes delivered by the public and private residential development sectors at lower prices, so more people can own their own home,” Mr Ó Broin said.
“Our plan is all about delivering tens of thousands of affordable homes, and in doing so bringing home-ownership back into reach for working people.”
Glenveagh on Thursday said it had achieved “milestone growth” in the first half of 2024 as its order book grew to €1.4 billion, and the company remained on track to complete 2,700 units this year.
Permissions have been granted for about 1,500 units this year, and Glenveagh said more than 95 per cent of units targeted for next year have secured the approvals needed.
A third partnership contract has been completed for a site adjacent to Balmoston, and site development works have begun.
Its suburban gross margin is expected to be more than 20 per cent this year, up from an underlying 19.3 per cent margin in 2023.
Full-year guidance for earnings per share expects it to double to about 17 cent for the full year, with a 15 per cent target for return on equity. Net debt is expected to fall to below €200 million by the end of the year, including the commencement of its €50 million share buyback programme that is due to start this week.
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