Cairn Homes plans to offload non-core sites

LISTED housebuilder Cairn Homes plans to sell non-core portions of its landbank this year, according to chief executive Michael Stanley.

Stanley said the company would seek to offload smaller sites with space for 40-60 units, preferring to build on larger tracts.

He said it had disposed of sites worth about €16m in 2017.

“Our plan is to build on every one we own, with the exception of some non-core sites,” Stanley said, adding that the company expects that building on land outside the capital will not commence until 2019 or 2020. Outside Dublin, the company has sites in Cork, Wicklow, Galway and Kilkenny.

Last week the company posted results which showed revenue grew to almost €150m last year, from €41m the year before. Next year it expects revenue to top €350m. “The Greater Dublin Area needs at least 20,000 new homes per annum for the next 10 years and 2017 supply was 4,000 new homes,” Stanley said.

Cairn said it had received “a number of enquiries in recent months from international institutional investors and private rental sector operators seeking to forward-purchase a number of our current and future high-density apartment developments.”