Almost 600 homes planned for new urban area in south Co Dublin

A major new urban area is to be created in southeast Dublin following the approval of more than €17 million for site services by Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien.

The Shanganagh scheme will include 597 public housing units including 306 cost-rental homes, 200 social housing units and 91 units for affordable purchase. The development is the State’s largest social and affordable scheme with full planning permission.

It is anticipated the cost-rental units will be let for about €1,000 per month for one-bedroom units and €1,200-€1,300 per month for two-bedroom units, representing a significant discount on average rents in the area.

The scheme is being progressed by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and the Land Development Agency on a 9.6 hectares site adjacent to Shanganagh Castle and Shanganagh Park at Shankill, Co Dublin.

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The council is expected to add more than €2 million to the site services fund, bringing the total available for water services, landscaping, roads and walking or cycling routes to €19.85 million.

Cost-rental homes are offered to prospective tenants whose income is above the threshold for standard local authority housing. The affordable purchase scheme is aimed at buyers whose incomes would not generally secure an adequate mortgage on the open market.

The new homes will be within 10 minutes’ walk of a new DART station being developed by Iarnród Éireann at Woodbrook, north of Bray. An Bord Pleanála granted planning approval for the development last July.

The project, designed by ABK Architects is valued at €180 million. Construction is expected to start on the site in the first half of 2021.

Planning permission

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council applied to the Department of Housing for the funding to service the land last October, after planning permission was granted last July. The council said the land associated with the cost-rental units will be transferred to the Land Development Agency on a 150-year lease.

News of the funding was welcomed by Fianna Fáil TD for Dún Laoghaire Cormac Devlin who said Mr O’Brien “has allocated €17.6 million for the construction of 597 badly needed public housing units in Shanganagh and it is very welcome.”

Mr Devlin said one-bedroom cost-rental homes were expected to be available at about €1,000 per month, with two-bedrooms costing €1,200.

He said it was significant the 306 cost-rental units “will assist those people earning above the eligibility threshold for social housing or Housing Assistance Payments but struggling to pay market rent while also saving for a deposit to buy their own home.”

Dún Laoghaire People Before Profit TD, Richard Boyd Barrett, said it was “long overdue”. He said the land was transferred from the ownership of the Department of Justice more than a decade ago, and despite many calls “not a sod has yet been turned”.

He also said the success of the scheme would be in the linkage of the cost-rental units and the affordable housing to the incomes of those who needed housing. “If it is linked to the needs of the Land Development Agency making a return on finance, or in any way to the prices of houses in the area, then it won’t be affordable,” he said.

Information on the housing schemes is available at shanganaghcastleresidential.ie