Council plans to build 1,300 homes on vacant Dublin sites

Plans for the "immediate development" of some 30 hectares of vacant Dublin City Council land to meet the "high demand and urgent need for housing in Dublin" will be presented to councillors tomorrow.

The council plans to develop more than 1,300 homes in what would be the largest building programme undertaken by a local authority since the property crash.

The programme would involve the development of social, affordable, private and the new model of “affordable rental” housing as outlined in Budget 2016, at sites the council owns at Oscar Traynor Road in Coolock, O’Devaney Gardens in Dublin 7 and St Michael’s Estate in Inchicore.

The sites will require an initial capital investment of €8 million which the council proposes to recoup through the sale of private housing and some commercial development.

Procurement process

The building programme is to start with the largest of the three sites, a 17-hectare plot at Coolock Lane, at the Santry end of Oscar Traynor Road, just east of the entrance to the Dublin Port Tunnel, which the council has designated for 655 homes.

The council has split the development into six lots and aims to start a procurement process for the first lot of 76 homes, comprising 44 houses and 32 duplex units, early in the new year.

Of these 76 homes 16 will be reserved for social housing, but 60 will be marketed as “starter homes” expected to cost in the region of €300,000 or less. The next phase will involve a mix of 122 starter and market-value houses, duplexes and apartments, and 30 social homes.

However, as part of the third lot, the council plans to use the new affordable rental model to provide 79 homes.

As part of Budget 2016 the Government set aside €10 million from the proceeds of the sale of Bord Gáis Éireann for an affordable rental pilot scheme. The council will be the first to test this model, which aims to offer “at cost” rented housing to low-income workers. The council proposes to set the rent for this housing at 30 per cent of the net income of the tenants or 20 per cent of local market rent, whichever is the lower sum. Unlike the traditional private rented sector, this model has the potential to “guarantee a home for life”, the council said.

Biggest impact

Affordable rental is likely to have its biggest impact at the O’Devaney Gardens site, where more than a quarter of the new housing could be given over to the scheme.

O’Devaney Gardens, a 1950s flat complex close to the Phoenix Park in Dublin 7, was to have been redeveloped under a public-private partnership (PPP) between the council and developer Bernard McNamara, but the deal collapsed in 2008. The council plans 398 homes, starting with 110, which the council said should be considered for the affordable rental scheme.

The final site, St Michael’s Estate, is also a former council flats complex which was to have been developed with Mr McNamara. Last year the council completed 75 houses and apartments on the site, but substantial lands remain. The council proposes 300 duplexes and apartments, almost all of which, 234, would be private.