Eur1m Killiney homes may be social housing

Up to nine €1 million-plus new homes at an exclusive apartment development based around the former Killiney Court Hotel in south Co Dublin may to be provided as social or affordable housing.

The two and three-bedroom units in the fashionable Killiney suburb - home to some of the State's most expensive properties - will have breathtaking views of Killiney Bay, and are expected to have a commercial value of at least €1 million each, with penthouses conservatively estimated at around €3 million.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has secured an agreement with the developers for up to nine of the 44 apartments to be transferred to the council for social and affordable housing.

The agreement was made last month under Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000.

However, the developers still have an option to provide nine apartments elsewhere; or to transfer 20 per cent of the Killiney site to the council; or to make a financial contribution in lieu of the new units.

The developers must decide on an option before work on the apartment schemes begins.

Under affordable housing schemes, the council would make the new homes available significantly below market value to those who have been priced out of the housing market by recent house-price inflation.

Categories of workers in this segment include teachers, nurses and many others on traditionally good incomes. The council would make a straightforward decision to house people from its housing lists.

Part V of the Planning and Development Act is aimed at easing the current housing shortage, and providing a good social mix, ending what has been described as the "ghettoisation" of communities.

The redevelopment of the former Killiney Court Hotel was approved by An Bord Pleanála earlier this year. In its conditions of permission it reduced the number of apartments from 48 to 44.

Opponents of the redevelopment had told Bord Pleanála that the hotel was situated on one of the most scenic sites in Ireland, with magnificent sea views and public lawns.

They claimed to lose such an amenity would be "devastating to the people of Dublin and the adjoining area".