Unused planning permission for thousands of apartments a social housing opportunity, conference hears

Unused planning permissions for tens of thousands of apartments represent a social housing opportunity, with the State now the “only game in town” for developers, a housing conference in Dublin has heard.

Focus Ireland chief executive Pat Dennigan has urged the Government to reverse its decision to lift the eviction ban until resources such as the 42,000 apartments, which have planning permission but remain unbuilt, have been tapped.

The “breathing space” offered by the ban, which is to be lifted from the end of this month, had not been used to put in place measures to increase housing supply, he said.

“At a time of such unmet housing need it is unfathomable to us that there are tens of thousands of homes, mainly apartments, that have gone all the way through the planning system, are ready to be built, but not a shovel has been put in the ground.”

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In Dublin 42,0000 apartments are waiting to be built, with 23,000 of them in the city area alone, many of which were in build-to-rent developments. The State needed to examine their potential for social rental, instead of “turning on the tap into homelessness” Mr Dennigan said. “We need to look these at tens of thousands of uncommenced homes as an opportunity and a resource.”

Dermot O’Leary chief economist with Goodbody told the Focus Ireland conference the unused planning permission offered the State a rare opportunity to secure housing rapidly.

“There are very rarely occasions where you have a quick wins in relation to housing policy. The funding of these housing developments is as close to a quick win as you could possibly get and it marries up with the significant need that the Government has.”

The last time the State had an opportunity to “get its hands” on a significant land bank was when the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) was established in the midst of the property crash he said.

“I think this is the second opportunity in the course of the decade to do it. Given the funding difficulties and the viability difficulties in the private sector, the State is really the only game in town, so it should take the opportunity.”

Dublin City Council’s head of housing Cóilín O’Reilly said the council had “a full list off all inactive planning permissions across the city” and expected some would provide housing from next year. However, he said in some cases developers were trying to off-load unviable schemes on the council.

“Some don’t work. It’s very important to find out at an early stage which ones they are.” This was particularly the case where “someone has overpaid for the land and they think they can get that money back from the council” he said.

He cautioned that these developments would still need to go through financial due diligence, procurement processes, consultation and engagement with the Department of Housing. “No one particularly wants me meeting a developer in the car park of a pub and doing a deal on 200 apartments.”

Michelle Norris, professor of social policy in UCD said repurposing of unused planning permissions by the State could be substantially quicker than the traditional social housing process which took up to six years.

“No doubt there are complexities in implementing it, and no doubt there are in particular political challenges in being seen to bail out the development industry, but I do believe when people show up on radio shows and TV shows and say the State should, during the course of the eviction ban take concerted action to ramp up delivery of social and affordable housing, they should be asked ‘like what?’

“I don’t claim to have all the answers but my view this is one of the few options quickly available to us.”