Glenveagh chief sees ‘dramatic progress’ with planning system that is ‘starting to function’

The chief executive of one of the country’s largest homebuilders has said that the planning system is “starting to function”, and that the Government is “getting there” in terms of tackling the housing crisis.

Stephen Garvey, chief executive of Glenveagh Properties, said that while he has been “one of the biggest critics” of housing policy and those in charge of it, several of the main issues in the planning system are being addressed.

Publishing interim results for the first six months of 2023 on Thursday, Glenveagh Properties said that it has seen “improved planning momentum”, with permission granted for about 4,000 units so far this year, and 3,300 of those beyond post-grant appeal periods.

The group expects that more than 70 per cent of its current land bank will be fully planned and shovel-ready by the end of 2024.

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“Over the last six months we’ve seen dramatic progress on the amount of planning permissions we’ve gotten through,” said Mr Garvey.

“The planning system, I was very critical of it last year, it didn’t function, it is now starting to function,” he added.

He highlighted that the transition from the old strategic housing development (SHD) process to the current large-scale residential development system for larger projects “took all the good points” of SHD and eliminated the bad ones, “and made the process better”.

He also noted resourcing of An Bord Pleanála is “definitely on the right trajectory”, and that the new Planning Bill and review of the national planning framework were in progress.

Glenveagh Properties said on Thursday its suburban house sales rose 30 per cent on the year to 333 in the first half of 2023.

However, the homebuilder’s revenues declined 14 per cent to €171.6 million and its gross profit dropped 15 per cent to €27.9 million, driven by the fact that results for the same period last year had been skewed by the €63 million generated from the sale of a site on East Road in Dublin’s north docklands.

Glenveagh’s closed and forward order book in its suburban unit – which excludes apartments – stood at 1,782 at the end of June.

“The outlook across Glenveagh’s businesses is favourable and the opportunities are compelling. We are ideally placed to serve what continues to be strong private demand, in addition to working constructively with State agencies on supply-side initiatives. Accelerating the provision of new housing is critical to help sustain economic strength and to accommodate our young and fast-growing population,” Mr Garvey said.

Glenveagh highlighted that opportunities are emerging to partner with multiple State agencies as part of the Government’s recent supply-side housing initiatives.

“Significant additional funding has been proposed for the Land Development Agency. In addition, one of our urban schemes of over 250 units has been approved under the Croí Cónaithe programme and this is expected to commence in the fourth quarter,” it said.

Croí Cónaithe is a Government scheme to support the building of apartments for sale to owner-occupiers.

“Our scale, operational capability and established expertise in partnership and urban development models, leaves us ideally positioned to participate in such initiatives,” Glenveagh said. “These have the potential to generate significant incremental revenue and profits for the group over the medium term.”

The group reiterated that it expects to post earnings per share of 7.5-8 cents this year, little changed from last year’s out-turn of 7.6 cent.

Glenveagh has spent €63 million buying back some of its own shares so far this year, bringing total returns since it began repurchasing stock in May 2021 to more than €300 million, it said.