Hope springs eternal as construction of 1,034 new homes gets under way

While the Government continues to contend with the clear and present danger posed to the public by the Covid-19 pandemic , the threat presented to its own survival by Ireland’s ongoing housing shortage hasn’t gone away you know.

With the delivery of 64 per cent of new home schemes delayed by up to six months by public health restrictions on construction according to new research from Knight Frank, the crisis that a succession of housing ministers have tried, and so far failed to address, has merely been compounded.

Next week however could prove to be something of a turning point in the fortunes of the current holder of the office, Darragh O’Brien, as work on the first major urban housing initiative in the Government’s Rebuilding Ireland Plan gets under way in Dublin.

The development will be built on a 72-acre publicly owned site

Developer Michael Whelan's Maplewood Residential and Grandbrind Ltd will be on site from next Monday at Kilcarbery in Clondalkin with a view to commencing the construction of 1,034 new homes.

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Kilcarbery Grange, as it will be known, is being partly funded by the Department of Housing through the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF), with the State providing upgrades to nearby roads, and water and waste infrastructure to facilitate the project. The development will be built on a 72-acre publicly owned site, with 30 per cent of the homes being used for public housing. The first phase of the scheme, comprising 301 units, is due for completion in September 2022.

Located next to the 120-hectare Corkagh Park, Kilcarbery Grange will include a mix of three and four-bed houses; one, two and three-bed apartments and three-be duplexes. The residential element of the scheme will be built around a new village centre with community retail and crèche facilities. The development has been designed by BKD Architects and will be marketed by DNG New Homes.

Commenting on the development of the scheme ahead of next week’s commencement of construction, Alex Brett, director at Maplewood Residential said: “Maplewood and Grandbrind successfully tendered for this project back in 2018 and have been working on the planning and design of Kilcarbery Grange for the past three years. The closing of construction has created huge difficulties for housing supply in Ireland, so we look forward to turning the sod on this new project as soon as it is safe to do so.

Maplewood and Grandbrind have been building houses in Dublin for over 35 years. The firms are currently active on several other developments around Dublin, Meath, Wicklow and Kildare, which will also be reopening. Maplewood has just completed the second phase of DodderBrook in Dublin 24 which consists of 134 houses.