Business case for investment and development outside Dublin is strong
Readers here who follow the original social media platform that is the Irish Times Letters to the Editor section might have noticed a trend in recent months towards letters about local planning. One popular letter that prompted several weeks of media and public commentary suggested that “…it is time that urban planning focused on housing outside the capital”. This suggestion was given in the context of a complaint that relaxed planning guidelines in Dublin are “creating ghettos for the future”. The public response to this was overwhelmingly in agreement, with other people writing in to bemoan “A lack of imaginative planning is a problem in other places too, with apartment blocks proliferating without proper infrastructure and a shocking lack of publicly accessible green space, especially semi-wild or biodiverse public space. One of the reasons for this situation may be that local councillors seem to have so little planning power, which is either controlled centrally, or wielded by profiteering local developers”. Why is this type of public commentary important? Because right now, our future policy-makers are pandering to the electorate. For this reason, it is crucial that all public voices are heard – this includes local investors, landlords, home builders and self-employed trades who are struggling with viability issues.
According to a new Residential Buildings Report from GeoDirectory, the average property price in Ireland in 2020 is €295,000. Dublin now has the highest average price at €420,000, with Leitrim at the bottom of the table, having an average home price of €121,000. The same report highlights a 40 percent increase in the number of new homes under construction over the past 24 months. Significantly, Ireland’s population grew by 64,500 over that period and with 70 percent of the population outside of the capital, the business case for investment and development outside of Dublin is looking strong. As always, we would be interested to hear from you on this.
Ian Lawlor
086 3625482
Director / Business Development
Lotus Investment Group