Council ‘disappointed’ with lack of interest from developers

A Dublin City Council plan to partner with developers to build public housing on sites with unused planning permission only received one application from a developer, which council officials said was “disappointing”.

Earlier this year the council sought developers who had land with planning permission to build housing and to develop sites for affordable or social housing.

The council received an initial 44 expressions of interest for the scheme where the council would partner with developers or small builders, but in the end only one application was received, the council said. A spokeswoman for the local authority said it was “disappointed not to get more interest” in the scheme.

Advertising for bids from developers this May, the council said the scheme had the potential to deliver a “significant” amount of public housing.

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The local authority said it was looking to find sites owned by private developers that had valid but unused planning permission, or sites where construction was ongoing, that would be suitable for social or affordable housing.

Housing supply

Despite efforts to engage with the construction sector on the proposals to partner with developers, the council only received one offer. “The response to this competition prompted DCC to re-engage with the market. Feedback from the sector suggests that there may still be opportunities in this area,” the spokeswoman said.

A recent report from the Dublin Housing Delivery Group, set up last year to co-ordinate housing supply across the four local authorities in the capital, noted other councils had low interest in similar schemes.

The August 10th report said South Dublin County Council also put out a call to partner with private developers and buy homes for social and affordable housing. The report said the scheme “generated no responses” from developers.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council also reported difficulties generating interest from developers to sell housing from new developments to the council for social and affordable units. “Whilst there was some level of interest from developers and a number of meetings took place, the viability of proposals remains a key issue,” the report said.

Dublin City Council has also sought to buy homes directly from developers with housing estates or apartment developments, which are due to be finished between now and the first three months of next year. The council has said it is interested in buying properties on recently built sites from developers, if the homes are suitable for social housing and represent value for money.

A spokeswoman said it was “always looking to develop new and innovative public housing delivery methodologies”.