High cost of turnkey housing

LOUTH County Council is one of a number of local authorities which is paying private developers more for turnkey social housing than it would cost them to build themselves.

Figures provided by Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin showed how much local councils paid last year for so-called turnkey purchases, which are bought directly from private developers for social housing tenants.

In several areas local authorities were paying almost twice the cost of the social housing units developed directly by the council.

In Louth, the average cost of turnkey acquisitions in 2019 was €273,00 while those built directly by the council under the Social Housing Capital Investment Programme (SHIP) cost €176,700 - a difference of €96,300.

Louth comes seventh nationally for the most spent on turnkey homes.

The Department of Housing warned ‘ that a range of dwelling types at various price ranges’ were covered by the figures, while pointing out that the cost of delivery can vary greatly depending on the type of development and the area involved.

Responding to the disclosure, Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú said: ‘ These figures lay bare what we have been saying for a long time - councils have to be empowered by central government to take the lead in delivering housing projects. The figures that Eoin O Broin has obtained show that councils can deliver houses cheaper than private developers.

‘It is clear from these figures that we are not getting value for money and councils have to be facilitated to build mixed developments which would consist of council housing, affordable housing, and cost rental, where that means families not having to fork out €1400 a month in rent’.