Some 2,300 Nama-funded homes to be finished within weeks

About 2,300 homes will be completed in the coming weeks on lands owned by Nama debtors and receivers, with another 2,200 houses and apartments expected to be finished by the end of next year.

Nama plans to spend €5.6 billion on funding work on 20,000 homes to be put up for sale on the open market within the next five years, most of them in Dublin and the greater Dublin area.

Dublin city and county will get 78 per cent of these homes, with 15 per cent in neighbouring counties and 7 per cent in other parts of the country.

The agency has identified eight Dublin housing “hot spots”, so-called because of their ability to provide more than 6,000 homes in the short to medium term.

These sites are in Dún Laoghaire, Stepaside, Ballycullen and Kilternan on the southside and Castleknock, Ashtown, Clongriffin and Swords on the northside.

Construction

Some 1,400 homes are currently under construction at these sites, another 1,576 have planning permission, and the remainder are either in the planning system or permission is expected to be sought within the next 12 months.

The proceeds of the sale of the first 20,000 homes will be “recycled”, the agency said, to fund new projects.

According to the latest residential report from the State agency published yesterday, more than 50,000 homes could be built on Nama debtor lands. It has identified sufficient land held by its debtors to provide 32,000 more homes in the period after 2020, but many of these sites need work, such as infrastructure, to make them viable.

The agency is promising three- and four-bed “starter homes” for first-time buyers.

Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly recently defined starter homes as "affordable homes costing €300,000 or below". Nama confirmed yesterday the majority of housing planned would be within this price bracket.

Target

Only 10 per cent of the homes will be used for social housing, the agency said, in line with the standard requirements for any private residential development.

While the agency has a target of 20,000 homes by the end of 2020, currently only two-thirds of these, some 13,200, have been assessed as “commercially viable”.

A detailed review has been carried out on the remaining sites in recent months and the agency said it was confident it could make the target.

“Nama is confident that intensive asset management work on other sites, including enhanced planning and the provision of strategic infrastructure, will ensure that the residual 6,800 units of the 20,000 unit target will be delivered.”

About 30 per cent of zoned residential sites in the Dublin area are controlled by Nama debtors and receivers, and construction is currently taking place on 40 of these sites.

The agency said this needs to be increased to 100 “concurrently active sites” in order to meet the 2020 targets.