Housing Ireland Conference 2024

Midway through the second full year of implementation of the Government’s Housing for All plan, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien TD sits down in his Leinster House office to reflect on the ubiquitous challenge of housing delivery with Ciarán Galway. “We had a good year [in […]

Beauchamps’ partner and head of its specialised housing team, Fidelma McManus, discusses cost rental housing, forward funding, and accelerating delivery of true mixed tenure schemes through collaboration. Beauchamps LLP is a full-service law firm comprising commercial real estate, construction, banking and finance and public procurement lawyers. Its housing team is […]

Total housing completion figures for 2022 show that the State exceeded its target for new homes by over 5,000 homes, a positive sign as the Government seeks to revise targets set under Housing for All. Delivery  Just under 30,000 homes – 29,851 in Housing for All progress reports compiled by […]

At the beginning of 2023, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage released its high-level priorities, listed in the table below and divided into categories. There has been reasonable progress made against these high-level priorities, although the phrasing in the document makes it unclear as to what the specific […]

Founded in 2012, The Housing Agency is a state-funded body of housing specialists, with a strong focus on problem-solving. The Housing Agency supports the development of sustainable communities across Ireland. We work mainly with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, local authorities, approved housing bodies, and other state […]

Following the publication of the National Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027, an implementation plan of some 107 actions has now been published. The overall aim of the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022 – 2027 aims ‘to facilitate disabled people to live independently with the appropriate choices and control […]

Following the publication of the inaugural Report on Relevant Public Land 2023, The Land Development Agency (LDA) hosted a round table discussion with key stakeholders from across the public and private sectors to discuss the delivery of affordable homes on state lands. What are the most significant challenges associated with […]

Respond is a leading Approved Housing Body in Ireland, directly managing the construction of social and cost rental homes. Through a forward funding model, Respond has successfully developed previously unviable sites, enabling the delivery of lifetime homes for people who need them. The ongoing projects in Charlestown (138 homes), Sandyford […]

Following the first annual review of Housing for All, Feargal Ó Coigligh, Assistant Secretary in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, discusses the priority actions for the year ahead. Published in September 2021, Housing for All commits to increasing the supply of housing to an average 33,000 per […]

Construction projects are complex ventures with multiple parties involved. Considering the ongoing shortage of housing units, stakeholders are under increasing pressure to complete developments in a timely manner. Leaving aside the challenges in the construction sector related to inflation, cost of materials and lack of qualified labourers, many developers are […]

Emitting over 10 per cent of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions, the decarbonisation of residential buildings is a major focus of Climate Action Plan 2023 (CAP23). While greenhouse gas emissions from Ireland’s built environment sector are decreasing (down from 13.6 per cent in 2020 to 13.3 per cent in 2021), emissions […]

Skills shortages, rising material costs, and the need to embed the principles of sustainability and circularity into future built environment projects are prompting the construction sector to prioritise smart offsite manufacturing by leveraging modern methods of construction (MMC). Modern methods of construction (MMC) describes an approach to constructing buildings using […]

An important focus for the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (AHBRA) has been the development of the regulatory framework, including our approach to monitoring and assessing AHBs and the application of risk-based regulation, writes Susanna Lyons, Chief Executive of AHBRA. Regulatory framework AHBRA’s regulatory framework sets out our overall approach […]

Deputy Secretary of Housing, Urban Regeneration and Local Government at the North’s Department for Communities, Mark O’Donnell, discusses progress on the draft Housing Supply Strategy, expansion of the Social Housing Development Programme, and the challenge of net zero. The draft Housing Supply Strategy was formed in the context of recognisable […]

Electric Ireland Superhomes is an SEAI registered one stop shop looking after all the key stages of a home energy retrofit, from design, contractor selection, project completion and management of SEAI grant funding to bring houses and apartments to a minimum of a B2 BER standard. Electric Ireland Superhomes is […]

The delivery of new homes has many different elements, it needs lots of willing market participants and a broad range of different stakeholders to get the final product delivered, writes Darragh Lennon, Head of Commercial at Home Building Finance Ireland. One thing that is needed to deliver homes is finance. […]

Homelessness among young people has risen by 57 per cent in the past five years, prompting the Government to develop a strategy working towards ending homelessness for young people aged between 18 and 24. Recent figures showing young people aged between 18 to 24 make up some 17 per cent […]

While Fingal County Council is committed to continuing the construction of new properties to help meet ever increasing demand in one of Ireland’s fastest growing and youngest regions, the Council is also taking significant strides in addressing dereliction and vacancy in the county. Fingal has a high demand for housing […]

As the Irish population grows, the need for more homes increases, which in turn puts pressure on existing infrastructure, including the water and wastewater system. Uisce Éireann has a critical role to play in developing water infrastructure to support economic growth including the delivery of housing across the country. Investment […]

Government ambitions to retrofit one-third of the State’s housing stock by 2030 have been given fresh emphasis under Climate Action Plan 2023 (CAP23), the framework to deliver economy-wide carbon budgets and sectoral ceilings. Published in December 2022, the third iteration of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) encompasses an objective to […]

Donal Mc Manus, CEO of the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH) writes about one of the growing areas in social housing delivery that has a significant multiplier effect in meeting other government objectives in relation to planning, the environment and climate action targets, supporting local services as well as, […]

General Secretary of Housing Europe, Sorcha Edwards, outlines the top challenges for affordable non-profit housing tenures across Europe and globally. The first challenge, Edwards believes, is that of building public understanding of cost rental housing, so as to maximise engagement and interest in what she believes is a “potentially very […]

On 22 February 2023, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney TD hosted a construction sector stakeholder event focused on identifying ways to drive innovation and boost productivity in residential construction, including through the adoption of modern methods of construction under Housing for All. It is understood that feedback […]

A new affordable housing policy aimed at longer-term rents at least 20 per cent below market value has been geared at increasing housing supply in the North. The Intermediate Rent Policy, published by the Department for Communities, is tailored towards those earning above the social housing affordability threshold but struggling […]

Over the last few months, our housing and homelessness figures have continued to fall short of the targets that have been set. With more than 12,000 households now living in emergency accommodation, tens of thousands of people seeking international protection and a significant growth in our population, we cannot continue […]

Housing Manager for Barcelona City Council, Javier Burón, outlines the city’s mission orientated model to inclusionary housing. In Catalonia, rents have risen three times faster than household incomes in the last two decades, on the back of bubbles in both real estate and the rental market. In Spain, housing is […]

Ireland has a dysfunctional property market. The scars of the downturn of 2008 have meant that the country has struggled to scale up housing supply to meet the requirements of the population. The consequences are particularly acute for apartment development, where there are multiple complexities and risks that have resulted […]

Co-operative Housing Ireland (CHI) is changing to improve the services it delivers to its tenants (members). Within the coming months, the organisation, which provides more than 4,500 affordable social-rented homes across Ireland, will roll out a specialist structure to ensure greater consistency in its housing service delivery. The shift will […]

In April 2023, the North’s Department for Communities (DfC) acquired the vacant Stewart Street site in Belfast’s Market area for housing-led regeneration. In this context, Ciarán Galway visits the area and speaks with Fionntán Hargey, Director of the Market Development Association (MDA), about his community’s longstanding grassroots housing and community […]

2023 heralds a significant time in the history of North & East Housing Association as we celebrate our 30th anniversary. The association was established in 1993 by a small group of volunteers and our growth since then has been built on a clear focus of providing quality homes for our […]

A study performed by Housing Europe for The Housing Agency sheds light on how cost-based social renting operates in Austria and Denmark, in order to inform The Housing Agency on different cost rental models, as Ireland steps up its delivery under the tenure model. Austria Social housing in Austria, 2020: […]

Construction targets are “unrealistic” as Ireland has an average household size which is considerably higher than the European average, an Oireachtas committee has been told by a senior housing expert. Sitting on 13 June 2023, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Conor O’Connell, Director of the […]

Leading heating technology manufacturer Grant has been providing innovative, efficient, and carbon reducing heating solutions for over 45 years. In recent years, Grant, which is based in County Offaly, has largely transformed into a renewable heating company and its award-winning heating technologies are playing an important part in helping homes […]

Modern methods of construction (MMC) will play a key role in both construction at large in the coming decades and the delivery of Housing for All specifically. The Housing Ireland Magazine examines how MMC is being implemented in Ireland. A 2022 Construction Industry Federation (CIF) report states that timber frames […]

As the industry confronts the challenges of disruptive change, it is an exciting time in the sector, and in Bord Gáis Energy in particular; both upstream and downstream. We are crossing the Rubicon to net-zero and Bord Gáis Energy is committed to lead the way. How? By investing in upstream […]

Ireland has 13 vacant homes for every homeless individual. A new action plan is seeking to recover vacant properties. Census 2022 outlines that there are 166,792 vacant homes in the State, which is considerably higher than the homeless population of 12,259 (as of April 2023). Whilst the number of vacant […]

It is now over four years since the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) was established, and four years on, our work of independently overseeing the planning system in Ireland is already having a positive impact. Assessing development plans Last year alone, as part of our responsibility for assessing all […]

A report released by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has found construction is more expensive in Dublin than comparable cities in Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Published in May 2023, the Residential Construction Cost Study Report compares the cost of construction in Ireland’s capital […]

Having now entered summer 2023, there are recent and proposed legislative changes that are likely to impact the housing sector. In March 2023, Section 13 of the Planning and Development and Foreshore (Amendment) Act 2022 was commenced together with supporting regulations. These had the effect that the Part 8 approval […]

Chair of the Housing Commission, John O’Connor, discusses the key considerations for delivering sustainable policies and outcomes to improve housing. Established by the Government to independently examine and review the housing system in Ireland, the Housing Commission has been tasked with making long-term and sustainable policy recommendations that will improve […]

Following the launch of the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027 Implementation Plan, Derval McDonagh, Chief Executive Officer, Inclusion Ireland advocates for a more cohesive approach to supported independent living. In late June 2023, the long-awaited implementation plan for the housing strategy for disabled people was published. Having attended […]