Infrastructure deficit holds back development of 50,000 Dublin homes

Inadequate water, sewage and transport infrastructure is holding back the development of about 20 large sites across Dublin that could provide 50,000 new homes.

State or State agency investment of about €240 million is needed to bring these lands into use. More than half the sites need infrastructure controlled by Irish Water before they can be developed for housing.

All the lands identified by the Dublin Housing Supply Taskforce, which was set up under the Government’s Construction 2020 strategy last May, have been designated residential priority areas because of their potential to deliver large numbers of houses and apartments on sites close to existing urban centres or because of specific provisions in city and county development plans mandating their development.

While the research has yet to be finalised, figures indicate that nearly half of all the landbanks are in Fingal. The two largest are in Swords and Blanchardstown. Each could provide about 7,500 homes if sewage problems were fixed.

In Swords, a number of problems with the drainage network, which has caused sewage overflows at times of heavy rains, could be fixed at a cost of about €6.5 million.

In Blanchardstown, the cost of providing the 7,500 units is greater, with an estimated €20 million needed to address sewage problems.

Need for roads

The development of three large sites in Fingal is constrained by the need for new roads. In Donabate, 4,000 homes could be built if a bypass, which has An Bord Pleanála approval, was built at a cost of €17 million. A €10 million road is needed in Blanchardstown to allow 1,100 homes to be built, while up to 1,000 new houses could be built in Baldoyle if €3 million was spent on the realignment of the Hole in the Wall Road.

Just a handful of landbanks have been identified as needing infrastructural investment in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, but they are all large and need significant funds.

In the Shanganagh area, €30 million is needed for a water supply scheme and €5 million for a new Dart station to allow the construction of 3,000 units. Near Stepaside a new road is needed at a cost of €25 million while ESB lines costing €8 million would allow 3,000 homes to be built.

Docklands

Dublin city’s largest infrastructural costs are in the docklands where an estimate of €25 million-€50 million has been put on a new Dodder bridge and additional bus routes to facilitate 4,600 apartments.

Around the Clongriffin area, a road needs to be completed at a cost of up to €15 million to allow the construction of 1,000 homes. Closer to the city at Cherry Orchard drainage infrastructure costing €9 million would allow 2,000 homes to be built. Further west at the Naas Road, ESB investment of €6 million would allow 1,000 homes to be built.

Just two significant plots of land with infrastructural constraints have been identified in south Dublin, both with water and sewage problems. Near Ballycullen about 1,600 units could be provided with investment in new sewers and a surface water upgrade scheme, while in Newcastle 500 homes could be built if a new sewage pumping station was installed at a total cost estimated above €5 million.