Lucan homes launched into unknown

It’s a brave person who would bring a ‘really new’ new-homes scheme to the market now

It's a brave person who would bring a 'really new' new-homes scheme to the market now. Developer John McGreevy tells EDEL MORGANwhy he is launching five showhouses, for homes costing from ¤159,950, this weekend

AS A BUILDER who isn’t in Nama and who is about to launch a new new homes scheme, John McGreevy is a rare specimen. This weekend he takes a step into the unknown with the launch of the Grove at Hansted off the Newcastle Road in Lucan, Co Dublin. It is a development of 61 houses and duplexes aimed at first-time buyers with prices starting at €159,950 which is being sold through Savills.

He admits he has no idea if the units, which are being sold off the plans, will sell. “None of us knows. It’s a case of suck it and see.”

A low-key kind of guy, he has been quietly building housing schemes around west and north Dublin with his brother Tom for 36 years for the firm his father Hugh and uncle Bernard set up (Hugh McGreevy Sons) in the late 1940s. This scheme is unusual in today’s market in that it’s not a new phase of an old development, a relaunch of unsold units that have rented for the past few years or a receiver sale.

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It remains to be seen though if the neat row of four terraced showhouses and the lone duplex block he has built for the launch will be enough to tempt first-time buyers in any numbers. He is hoping that because they are brand new houses and duplexes, as opposed to apartments, they will generate interest.

“There are very few new houses around. The majority of stuff available is apartments being sold by the receivers and it seems most people want traditional-style houses.”

This weekend’s launch will be an interesting test of the market and whether recent budget measures have stimulated any activity. Fewer than a handful of builders have dared to launch in recent years given the overhang of previously built units on the market and the current lack of financing.

“If we get six to 10 people to buy this weekend, it’s all we need to get started,” McGreevy says. “We don’t need 40 or 50 people right now, as each part of the development is small and self-contained.

“This time next year there could be a lot of houses built here or it could be a slow burner.”

Deposits will be returned to buyers if not enough units are sold to start the first phase.

The long-term plan is to build a series of squares, each with a mix of two- and three- bed duplexes and three-bed houses. As starter homes go, they are fairly impressive. All come with solar panels, kitchen appliances and good storage.

The three- bed end-of-terrace houses, priced from €194,950, are 122sq m (1,313sq ft) with well-proportioned kitchen/diners and bathrooms, storage areas, utility rooms and en suite main bedrooms.

The two-bed duplex from €159,950 is 88sq m (947sq ft) and also comes with a utility room. It has a large paved terrace off the living room, a spacious double bedroom and larger single room. In the showhouse, a storage room upstairs is so big it doubles as a computer room. Mid-terrace three-beds start at €189,950 while three- bed duplexes start at €179,950.

McGreevy puts his survival down to “not going mad”. He says there are still a few of the more cautious, long-established builders like him around. Previous McGreevy developments include Redcourt in Clontarf, Fforster Square, Esker Park and Elmbrook in Lucan and Ashcroft in Raheny.

Not that he has been immune to making mistakes. His timing could have been better on the Grove. It was an infill site beside Hansted housing development bought from Castlethorn Construction, now in Nama, in 2008 at a time he thought the market was settling down.

“The market had already gone down when I agreed to buy, but the price seemed okay for that time and I thought the market was levelling out. Then in September, Lehman Brothers happened and things went downhill.”

He took a substantial hit on the four-acre site and, when he got planning permission in 2010, he thought long and hard before pressing ahead, “Even now I ask is it the right thing to do to put up a showhouse, but at some point things have got to turn around.”

He decided to build the showhouses and only build each phase as the units are sold. “If these don’t sell, I’ll stop and wait it out. It will happen again when people say property makes sense.”

There will be a management fee of about €200 a unit.

Unfinished business

To avoid creating another ghost estate, the builder of the Grove at Hansted in Lucan is proceeding cautiously, testing the market to see what demand there is before building anything more than the initial showhouse.

Estimates of how much overhang of unsold “new” houses and apartments there are on the market vary and straightforward figures are not easy to get.

A Department of the Environment national housing survey in October 2011 showed that there were 18,638 dwellings complete and vacant, a 20 per cent reduction in the 23,250 recorded in 2010.

However, other developments are still being completed, adding to housing stock for sale.

The DoE survey showed 2,066 unfinished housing developments in Ireland, of which 244 are categorised as active developments and 1,822 as inactive.

The department has categorised such schemes as follows: category 1: the scheme is being worked on and will be finished; category 2: a receiver has been appointed and the scheme is being managed; category 3: the developer is in place but nothing is happening; category 4: an abandoned development.

EMMA CULLINAN