Homeland targets Leopardstown for 460 apartments

Developer Neil Collins's Homeland group is seeking permission to build more than 460 homes in the Dublin suburb of Leopardstown.

Homeland Silverpines Ltd, one of the group's subsidiaries, has applied to An Bord Pleanála to build several blocks of apartments up to 10 storeys high on a site stretching between Brewery and Leopardstown Roads.

Planning notices show the group wants to build six apartment blocks at the site with a total of 463 units consisting of one-, two- and three-bedroom homes.

The blocks will range from two storeys high for the smallest, which will have nine apartments, to 10 storeys for part of the largest, which will contain 157 dwellings.

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Homeland intends to include balconies, open spaces and communal areas in the complex.

The company will have to demolish 10 existing one- and two-storey houses, an office and other structures on the site to make way for its development.

Homeland has acquired the properties over the past two years at a total cost of about €20 million.

Local attention

The company's plans are likely to draw a high degree of attention locally. The site is close to Leopardstown Racecourse and across from the Laura Lynn hospice.

It is also close to Sandyford Industrial Estate, South County Business Park and Central Park, homes to Microsoft, Bank of America, Vodafone, Icon and other multinational investors.

Homeland paid more than €10 million in 2019 to buy five of the houses it plans to demolish to make way for the proposed apartment blocks.

Early in the year the company paid €4.8 million for two of them, Annaghkeen and Dalwhinnie.

In November 2019 it forked out €5.4 million, €1.8 million each, for three adjoining properties – Alhambra, Wellbrook and Calador.

Three years earlier it bought the St Joseph’s House facility on Brewery Road. That deal and the subsequent purchase of the other properties brought its site close to two hectares.

Homeland is applying under the Strategic Housing Development system that allows builders to bypass local councils and go straight to An Bord Pleanála.

In 2017 the company sought permission for a smaller development, totalling 133 homes, but changes in the regulations since allowed it to expand its proposals.

The strategic housing system, meant to fast-track much-needed house building, has resulted in many proposed projects ending up in litigation. The Oireachtas intends to replace the scheme, which was originally introduced in 2017.