One of the North’s largest housing associations is to develop 70 new homes in Derry as part of an innovative £7 million (€9.8m) project with a private developer.
Fold Housing Association together with the support of the North's Department for Social Development (DSD) and the NI Housing Executive (NIHE) is backing an initiative, a first for the North West, which will see a construction firm assume responsibility for the site acquisition, design and construction of the multi-million pound housing project.
Housing associations in the North operate under strict procurement regulations and in the past have tended only to issue tenders for the construction elements of housing development projects.
But Fold is now pioneering a “Competitive Design and Build” initiative which will give local builders the opportunity to get involved in housing projects from the very beginning.
In Derry the housing association has teamed up with Eglington based construction firm Braidwater to develop 70 homes in Skeoge, the new project will complement an already established Fold scheme in Glenabbey which is home to 280 families.
The latest project will bring the housing association’s total investment in the area to almost £40 million over the last five years.
Anita Conway, director of development at Fold Housing Association, believes the ‘Competitive Design and Build’ initiative, which will roll out across the North, will deliver opportunities for both housing associations and the local construction industry in the North.
Ms Conway said: “It’s a win, win situation because from our perspective it reduces the risk - it gives us defined costs and a fixed final price and from the builders’ perspective he gets a contract, subject to planning, which guarantees him work and one which enables him to go to a bank and secure finance on the basis of that contact.
“Very often builders that have land don’t want to sell the land to us - they want to build and develop it themselves and this gives them an opportunity to do that.
“It is getting much harder to acquire sites in Northern Ireland and what the ‘Competitive Design and Build’ scheme does is give builders who may be sitting on a land bank the opportunity to develop it and it gives us the opportunity to deliver much needed homes.”
She said Fold is the first social housing organisation to operate the scheme in Ireland, it initially piloted a 41 homes development on the Ravenhill Road in Belfast with another private developer and the success of this project led to its expansion to the North West.
Ms Conway said Fold now plans to launch another competitive design and build project for 13 homes in east Belfast and is pursuing further projects in Carrickfergus and in other areas in Belfast.
