Housing association provides 500 homes this year

More than 500 social houses and apartments, more than half of which are in Dublin city and county, have been provided by Túath Housing association so far this year.

The organisation has built or bought houses in every local authority area, except Monaghan, this year and is on target to provide 800 homes to applicants on housing waiting lists by the end of the year, the largest number of homes it has provided in any year since it was set up 17 years ago.

Its largest single scheme undertaken this year, and one of the largest apartment schemes built in the State in 2017, is a development of 122 apartments, completed in collaboration with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and Nama. The apartments are part of a large development of almost 900 homes under construction on the site of the old Dún Laoghaire golf course near Glenageary.

In total Túath has provided 135 homes in the Dún Laoghaire area this year. The local authority is to receive the second largest tranche of Túath homes is Dublin City Council with 81 homes, 68 of which are at Thornwood in Beaumont, with the remainder in Finglas. Túath has also supplied 26 homes each in the South Dublin and Fingal County Council areas.

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Last year Túath provided 565 homes, which had been its most successful year to date.

"In 2016, we were very proud to surpass the 500 homes mark in one year. With the support of the State, Housing Finance Agency and other lenders and local authority partners, we are doubly proud to have already delivered over 500 homes so far this year, typically renting at €50 per week," Túath chairman Seamus Doherty said.

Affordable housing

“It underlines the fact that with interest rates so low, now has never been a better time to buy and build to help combat the affordable housing crisis. We are on target to deliver some 800 new social homes in 2017 to bring our total social stock to over 3,500 homes, setting us on course to achieve our 2020 vision of 5,000 plus social homes ahead of target.”

Approximately 60 per cent of the 508 homes provided this year are newly built, with the remainder purchased for social housing. The association will have invested approximately €80 million using a combination of State funding and private finance from the Housing Finance Agency, European Investment Bank and Allied Irish Bank in 2017.

The homes vary from apartments to houses from one to five bedrooms in urban and rural areas. The association provides homes to a wide range of tenants including families, older people, single people, the disabled, the homeless, working and unemployed people as well as a small number of homeowners with unsustainable mortgages.

Túath hopes to complete 62 homes in Monaghan next year.