Starter homes from €240,000 to be built in Dublin plan

Starter homes priced from €240,000 are to be built by Dublin City Council under plans to develop more than 1,300 homes on 30 hectares of vacant land in the city.

Councillors have endorsed the development of social, starter, 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 building programme, its most ambitious since the regeneration of Ballymun, 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, of 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" which the Government had defined as homes costing €300,000 or less. However, executive housing manager Tony Flynn said the council offer these from €240,000 for a two-bedroom house and €260,000-€275,000 for a three-bed.

“We feel we can get these homes at a much more competitive price. We are in control of these sites . . . If we are the developer we can cut out a significant margin would have been taken by the developer.”

The next phase will involve a mix of 122 starter and market-value houses, duplexes and apartments, and 30 social homes. The council would hope to start construction of the first two phases next year. In all up to 210 houses could be part of the starter homes scheme at this site with more at O’Devaney Gardens.

The programme has been approved by councillors on both the housing and planning committees, but must be ratified by a full council meeting in January to allow the first phases to go to tender.

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

Pilot scheme

In 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 below 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.

The council plans to develop the first phases through a “public tender with conditions” involving the council approving the design, determining how much social housing was provided, and setting the time scale for construction.

Several councillors queried why the council was not pursuing a partnership with voluntary housing bodies, instead of selling the lands.

Mr Flynn said “there was nothing in this report that excludes approved housing bodies”.

Councillors from People Before Profit, the Workers’ Party and the Anti-Austerity Alliance voted against the plan.

A further report detailing the development of O’Devaney Gardens with almost 400 homes and St Michael’s Estate with 300, will be produced early next year.