Why the hold-up?
60,000 houses and apartments in Dublin granted planning permission but may never be built due to a lack of funding
ALMOST 60,000 houses and apartments in the Dublin region have been granted planning permission but may never be built due to a lack of funding, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
The revelation comes as a leading mortgage advocate called for a bank-style bailout to combat the unprecedented housing crisis.
A report by the Housing Supply Co-ordination Taskforce compiled for the Department of Housing revealed that at the end of June last year only 26,084 out of 84,276 units given planning permission have either been built or were under construction.
The report states: ‘Planning permission remains in place in the Dublin region for the development of a combined total of 58,192 residential units in 2023.’
It added planning permissions ‘not being utilised’ represents a 17.5% rise on the previous year.
The report also found the number of homes being constructed in Dublin fell over the first six months of 2023 compared to 2022 figures.
Despite the Government’s success in meeting its targets to build 29,000 new homes nationwide last year, actual house building activity in Dublin slowed in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2022.
Overall, there was a significant 21.8% drop from the 3,369 new family homes built in Dublin during the first six months of 2022 to 2,635 in the same period last year.
The slowdown in construction highlights the challenges the Government faces to address the chronic shortage of accommodation across the country.
Mortgage advocate David Hall warned the scale of the crisis now requires a bank-style bailout for the housing sector.
He told the MoS: ‘Only a massive state intervention in the housing market and the building of homes, in the same way they nationalised the banks during the bailout can now work.
‘The overall housing crisis is now so acute only a move of this magnitude would turn the situation around. Only the State can rescue the current situation.’
Outlining his justification for a national housing ‘bailout’, the debt campaigner noted: ‘We spent tens of billions nationalising the banks to rescue bankers in order to protect the State.
‘Home ownership and the availability of homes is evolving into a huge social crisis which requires similarly radical actions.
‘We are in a situation where we are almost normalising the scenario where people sleep in tents. We need big ideas and brave steps to deal with the crisis.’
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan previously suggested a ‘massive intervention’ by the State would be required to end the scenario where thousands of new homes are stuck in the planning system. And Mr Hall added that in the event of housing bailout, ‘at least we would have an asset were we to do this for three years. The State looked after the banks because it had to. We are in a similar state when it comes to housing’.
Calling for a ‘reformation’ of housing policy, Mr Hall said: ‘Everything is going one way; demand, homelessness availability… it is a vicious cycle governed by an overly bureaucratic system which has no sympathy in the interest of those they are supposed to serve. It needs a reformation.
‘We are set up to fail, we can only fail. People are in crisis.’
Last week the MoS revealed the Government was revising its targets upwards by 5,000 this year, when it promises to deliver just under 40,000 new homes. Taoiseach Leo Varakdar said the Government hopes to build 50,000 homes a year by 2028, and 60,000 by 2030. However, the Construction Industry Federation said the target of 60,000 ‘is required and achievable’ now.
This echoed recent research published by the Irish Institutional Property organisation, which warned capital investment in housing must rise to €18.5bn to deliver 60,000 new homes a year.
In response to queries from the MoS, the Government ruled out any form of a ‘bailout’.
Asked how the Government plans to unlock housing granted planning permission but currently not being built, the Department of Housing said: ‘There are already existing schemes which are activation measures directed towards private market operators who are experiencing difficulties with viability
‘Only the State can rescue the situation’
‘We are set up to fail, we can only fail’
with progressing schemes. These include the Croí Cónaithe (Cities) scheme and Project Tosaigh, which is a framework to initiate development on privately held sites that have planning permission but have not commenced.’
The Government has come in for criticism for failing to meet social and affordable housing targets.
However, the Department of Housing said Project Tosaigh ‘is currently on target to deliver 5,000 new cost rental, affordable purchase and social homes to eligible households by 2026’.
It added the Land Development Agency (LDA) purchase of land in Clongriffin in Co. Dublin, which has the potential to deliver more than 2,300 affordable and social units, will be ‘the biggest single State housing project in decades with the delivery of a new community involving cost rental, affordable purchase and social housing’.
A spokesman added: ‘The LDA has sites for in excess of 8,000 homes in its short to medium term direct development pipeline, some of which are under construction.
‘The Government is already supporting local authorities, approved housing bodies to acquire land for social and affordable housing.
‘Local authorities are also working to find suitable homes and sites in the private market with appropriate zoning and planning to meet their targets.’
However, David Hall said the Government schemes ‘are only a drop in the ocean compared to what’s actually needed’.