IS THE BUILDING BOOM ON THE WAY BACK?
THE SIGNS INDICATE WEXFORD COULD BE ON THE BRINK OF A NEW BUILDING BOOM AS PLANNING APPLICATIONS FROM DEVELOPERS SURGE. MARIA PEPPER REPORTS
A NEW building boom could be on the horizon in Wexford which is experiencing a surge in planning applications for large private residential developments after almost a decade of inactivity.
In recent months, Wexford County Council has received applications from developers seeking to build hundreds of homes on vacant land mainly in the Clonard and Crosstown areas on the outskirts of the town centre.
One of the main players is the Wexford company William Neville and Sons of Rockfield House, Spawell Road which has just been given the go-ahead by local authority planners to build 59 homes at Clonard Little on the Whitemill link road and has also recently been involved in a pre-planning consultation process for almost 400 housing units and two creches on the old Roadstone Holdings site at Carcur.
An application has just been received from HRH Homes of Clonard House to construct 46 mostly 4-bedroomed houses on a seven-acre site at Clonard Little and Killeens.
CFO Construction of Dublin has been involved in pre-planning discussions with An Bord Pleanála in relation to the building of 151 new homes at Clonard Little, near Whitemill Industrial Estate although some preliminary issues have been raised by the board in relation to the proposal.
Planning approval for a link road between Mulgannon and Rocklands recently paved the way for Colm Neville Construction to build 181 houses at Roxborough Manor on a 65-acre site which has capacity for a total of 600 houses depending on market demand.
Ferrybank Enterprises Ltd recently applied to the Council for permission to build the first phase of 65 houses in a proposed scheme of 126 houses at Crosstown, Ardcavan while Liam Neville Construction was granted planning approval on appeal to An Bord Pleanála last September for 24 houses at Ardcavan.
In addition, applications have been granted for smaller schemes of houses around the Wexford area.
The planning process has not been plain sailing for some developers seeking to build houses with businessman Michael Hayes refused planning permission on appeal by An Bord Pleanála to build 59 homes and five commercial units at Crosstown and William Neville and Sons having to submit a second application for the proposed Clonard Little homes after the first application was turned down on the grounds that there were inadequate open spaces in the design and the original entrance would endanger public safety by creating a traffic hazard.
House-building which reached a peak during the
Celtic Tiger came to a standstill in 2007 after the Irish property market crashed.
It’s not so much a boom as a reaction to the market, according to Colum Murphy, managing director of Kehoe and Associates Auctioneers who said house prices are now barely at the level where a builder can expect to make a profit. ‘For the last
10 years there was a viability problem, it was a case of how much you’d lose. A builder constructing a three-bedroom semi-detached house today will make a reasonable profit out of it.’
‘What you’re seeing is builders coming back into the market. It’s a long way from a boom. At the moment there are only a
handful of new houses available to buy in Wexford town with a population of 25,000 people’, he said. (The homes in Whiterock Hill are under construction by Dan Morrissey). ‘Demand has increased. The increase in planning applications for residential developments is a reaction to that. The market is offering supply and it’s viable’. According to Colum this is good news for the purchaser because it will offer choice and competitiveness and will ensure against a rapid rise in property prices’.
“Demand has increased. The increase in planning applications for residential developments is a reaction to that”