Approved housing bodies grow 10% in a year with record number of homes delivered

Approved housing bodies (AHBs) provided just under 5,000 new social and cost rental homes in 2022, the highest level of delivery in any year by housing associations, according to the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH). Upon the release of its Housing Activity Report 2022, the ICSH says last year’s figures represent an increase on pre-pandemic delivery and that the housing association sector has grown by 10 per cent.

In addition, the housing association sector accounted for 44 per cent of total social housing delivery in Ireland and 69 per cent of total cost rental delivery during 2022, says the ICSH. The increases were seen despite what Donal McManus, ICSH chief executive, says was a year of “turbulent market conditions” where interest rate changes, construction price inflation and capacity issues presented challenges to the construction industry.

“With almost 55,000 housing association/approved housing body (AHB) homes now in ownership and management, providing permanent homes for families, older people, disabled people and households experiencing homelessness, our sector has grown by 10 per cent year-on-year,” said Mr McManus.

“Alongside local authorities, our AHB members have ensured that more than one third of all new housing delivered in 2022 is social and affordable cost rental housing. It is important that this trend continues. With stability in the housing market, the AHB sector is forecast to grow at current rates to 90,000 permanent social rented homes in management by 2030 as well as increased cost rental homes for medium income households.”

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During 2022, 10 per cent of housing association delivery involved the repurposing of vacant residential and commercial properties including pubs and offices. 85 per cent of AHB social housing delivery in 2022 were new-builds.

Other notable figures released by the ICSH include the provision by AHBs of 710 homes for people with additional needs last year, double the 2021 figure, and the completion of 176 age-friendly homes for the elderly, a threefold increase from 2021. 81 AHB mortgage to rent homes were completed in 2022.

Upon the release of its report, the ICSH says that the Government’s recent announcements of a pause on development levies and an increase in the vacant homes refurbishment grant represent “recognition of the challenges ahead in order to reach Housing for All annual housing output targets.”

“Social and (in particular) cost rental housing, will represent a much greater proportion of annual housing delivery over the coming years,” says the ICSH. “The current review of the cost rental equity loan scheme is ongoing, and we hope it will address the key challenges that remain around the viability of cost rental housing schemes, so that AHBs can remain at the forefront of delivery of this new tenure.”

Mr McManus on Wednesday called for regulation of the planning system to smooth the process which is holding up “hundreds” of building projects. Mr McManus told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that if the process was streamlined “it could speed up” the building of social homes.

Social housing bodies will surpass their targets in 2023 and will do so again in 2024, he said. There were a number of schemes in the pipeline, but it takes years for a home to get through the process from a site being identified to completion, he explained. Land needed to be secured now for such projects, he urged.

The Land Acquisition Fund should be “annualised” so that it is known in advance what land will be available in a continuous supply, said Mr McManus. The planning system was also causing delays and if it were streamlined then the entire process could speed up delivery of social homes.

Mr McManus said that some social housing bodies were working “at full tilt” while others could do more but they needed sites to become available.