Almost 30,000 units in large-scale housing developments are either under appeal to An Bord Pleanála or subject to judicial review, it has been claimed.
The Construction Industry Federation (CIF), the representative group for the industry, estimates that more than 16,000 units are subject to objections to the planning authority, and a further 13,000 are subject to judicial review.
These are developments of more than 100 units each. CIF figures do not include smaller developments under 100 units.
CIF director of housing and planning Conor O’Connell said the notion that sufficient numbers of construction workers are not present to build 50,000 housing units a year is “nonsense”, and that the industry doubled its housebuilding capacity from 2016 to 2019 – and then doubled it again from 2019 to 2023.
Capacity is not the issue, he said. Rather, by “far and away the biggest concern of housebuilders at the moment is the pipeline of work. We have enough for 2025, but we will be very concerned about the pipeline from 2026 onwards, and that is not being dramatic if you look at the planning permissions for the residential sector at the moment – the pipeline is the greatest issue”.
Mr O’Connell pointed to figures in the first nine months of 2024 indicating that only about 32,000 to 33,000 units will have been given planning permission last year.
“That’s nowhere near enough,” he said. “The majority of residential developments at scale are subject to some observation, or ultimately, objections. The scale of objection and the scale of the issues over the last few years has meant very lengthy delays to a large number of permissions over a significant time-frame from 2019 to 2022/2023.”
Central Statistics Office figures published last week showed the number of new homes built last year fell by almost 7 per cent to just more than 30,000, far short of Government targets of 40,000.
The CIF made a detailed submission to the Government-formation talks on how to accelerate housebuilding in the State to meet targets of more than 50,000 units a year.
It has welcomed the commitment in the programme for government to increase the amount of zoned and serviced land in line with the revised National Planning Framework, which is due out in July.
The CIF wants the “headroom” of zoned land to be increased from 25 per cent of estimated need to at least 50 per cent. Currently, if a local authority feels that 1,000 homes are needed, it zones land for 1,250 homes. The CIF wants that increased to 1,500 units.
The CIF called in its submission for Uisce Éireann to have ringfenced spending of €500 million a year to ensure that more homes can be built.
“Every single report that we are getting back from our members is the same. It’s about infrastructure blockages – connections to water, waste water, roads, electricity and public transport,” Mr O’Connell said.
The federation also called in its submission for changes to be made to rental caps.
Currently, most urban areas are in rent pressure zones where annual rent increases are capped at 2 per cent every year. The CIF maintains the Government needs international funds to achieve its housing targets, which cannot be achieved by State investment alone.
[ Banking lobby group warns that house building has stalledOpens in new window ]
“Something has to change in relation to the rental caps in order to attract the international funds back,” he said.
“All the feedback we are getting is that the 2 per cent limitation means their assessment of their returns, which will allow them to fund, is skewed.”
Greater supply will have a “dampening effect in relation to rents”, he added. “We haven’t been building enough rental stock.”
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