Affordable Housing on Private Lands

You might recall the recent launch of the Land Development Agency (LDA), the State’s latest ‘great white hope’ to tackle the housing crisis. At the time, the new agency announcement was met with the usual media cynicism, yet, it commanded a certain level of positive expectation from the industry. There was a palpable sense that this could work, even if it took a decade to impact the marketplace. While the announcement was light on detail, even the most industry-weary admitted that it contained some great ideas. Since then, we have been waiting for more details.

For people unfamiliar with the LDA, it is a €1.25 billion funded agency (€20 million initially) tasked with building (delivering?) 150,000 homes over the next 20 years. Of these 150,000 homes, 30% must be affordable and 10% social housing. Unusually, at the launch our Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy stated that the agency was ready to deliver an initial pipeline of State-owned land capable of delivering at least 10,000 homes.

While it was not made clear, we surmised that there appeared to be three distinct methods of constructing houses on State-owned lands i.e. direct development by the LDA, a licence agreement to allow home builders to deliver housing under strict criteria, and likely joint venture between the State and larger developers/home builders. With this in mind, it is interesting to read in The Journal last Thursday, journalist Christina Finn reporting that now affordable homes are to be built on private lands through what she describes as ‘quid pro quo’ negotiations between local authorities and developers.

The plan appears to be that all government departments and State bodies are scheduled to hand over information on lands they own – or those under their control, which might be controversial – by the end of this month. Once all land details have been collected and collated, the LDA will make it publicly available.

The establishment of a database of all publicly-held lands is long overdue and very welcome. Also, the Housing Committee is due to hear directly for four local authorities this week about how to best utilise public land. It will certainly be interesting to hear proposals for affordable housing under the parameters set out by the Minister, that is, buyers and tenants spending 30% of income paying for rent or mortgage. It is difficult to imagine how this could be done on privately-owned lands, particularly in Dublin or Cork.

Ian Lawlor
086 3625482

Director / Business Development
Lotus Investment Group