The Government has got the “right” policy mix in place to deliver 50,000 homes a year, the chief executive of Glenveagh Homes has said.
Stephen Garvey said policy changes announced last year, including changes to design standards, an overhaul of the rent rules and a reduction in VAT on new builds, had removed an estimated €100,000 “viability gap” for apartments.
Garvey said the feedback he got from institutional investors at last week’s MIPIM real estate conference in Cannes was that Ireland had “made the really big decisions really early” and there was now “momentum” in the sector here.
There is homelessness problem and an affordability problem in housing across Europe but “Ireland is now being looked upon as having potentially addressed these big issues,” he said.
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Garvey was speaking after Glenveagh reported higher revenues, profits and house sales for the year.
The company delivered a total of 2,568 new homes last year, up 11 per cent on the previous year but below forecasts.
Garvey, however, said the company’s land bank would see it expand output to about 3,600 units by 2028.
On a national level, he said annual housing output was currently at 36,000 units but this did not include an estimated 4,000 units of obsolete stock coming back on stream.
“They (the Government) set out a clear agenda at the start of 2025, here’s the issues we need to address and here’s how we’re going to look at it,” Garvey said.
There was now a clear line of sight to 50,000 units a year which he said could be achieved in 2027 or 2028.
The Government’s revamped housing plan promises that a minimum of 300,000 new homes will be built by 2030.
Glenveagh’s latest results show the company generated record revenue of €926 million last year with operating profit rising 9 per cent to €144.1 million.
The average selling price was approximately €347,000, down from €365,000. “This reduction was fully anticipated and reflected site and product mix in 2025,” the group said.
The average selling price is expected to increase in 2026 to more than €375,000, driven by a higher weighting of non-standard homes on portions of sites where the pre-existing planning was secured by previous owners.
It is expected to normalise to a structural run-rate of approximately €350,000 per unit thereafter, excluding future house price inflation, consistent with a return to a more typical mix of standardised own-door product across sites of scale.
Partnerships, which includes apartments, delivered revenues of €380.9 million, up from €237.3 million, representing 61 per cent year-on-year growth.
Glenveagh said the segment continued to scale and increase its contribution to group performance, with “strong momentum” during the year.
Homebuilding gross margin widened from 22.5 per cent to 23.6 per cent, underpinned by standardisation, scale and vertical integration, alongside a continued contribution from land sales.
Garvey said the company was partially insulated from a potential surge in build-cost inflation from events in the Middle East as a result of “vertical integration”. The company has its own purpose-built timber frame business, capable of producing 450 frames per year. He noted that 80 per cent of the company’s costs for 2026 and 50 per cent for 2027 were already procured.
The result indicated ventral costs increased marginally to €50.1 million, which included a non-cash, share-based payment expense of approximately €8.1 million.
While absolute costs rose modestly, overheads reduced as a proportion of revenue as Glenveagh improved operational leverage as the business scales, it said.
“This dynamic is expected to persist, with overhead growth expected to materially lag revenue over the medium term,” it said.
Net finance costs increased marginally to €18.9 million, driven by higher average debt balances earlier in the year. Earnings per share increased from 17 cent to 20 cent, ahead of guidance and representing a 17.6 per cent year-on-year increase.
Garvey described 2025 as “a strong, productive year” for the company, with “record output enabling the delivery of affordable, conveniently located homes”.
“Importantly, as an industry, how we collectively support the increased use of off-site manufacturing and industrialised construction as a lever to significantly increase supply should be a key area of focus and collaboration,” he said.
