The 2022 edition of Ireland’s Housing Magazine is the first since the publication of the Government’s housing plan Housing for All. Launched in September 2021, Housing for All commits €4 billion of state funding each year to enable the supply of over 300,000 homes by 2030. This represents a significant […]

At a time of great uncertainty, with pressures such as inflation at home and the repercussions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine abroad, having a consistent housing plan is more important than ever, writes Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien TD. Housing for All offers us this consistency. It is a […]

Ciarán Galway visits Laytown, County Meath to discuss priorities, consolidation, and professionalisation with Circle Voluntary Housing Association (VHA) Chief Executive and Housing Alliance chair, John Hannigan. Established as a general need family housing association in 2003, having trebled in size in the past five years, Circle VHA now operates in […]

Roundtable hosted by:   Bord Gáis Energy hosted a round table discussion on the topic of Ireland’s sustainable housing future, bringing together stakeholders from the public, private, non-profit, and academic sectors. What are the main challenges of successfully retrofitting 500,000 homes by 2030? Dave Kirwan Skills and costs. 12 per […]

Apartments are a key element of our housing stock, and building new apartments, particularly in our cities is vital to help tackle climate change, achieve compact growth and make our cities more vibrant places to live, writes ­Catriona Lawlor, Administrative Officer with the Housing Agency’s Delivery Team. Many people want […]

Early indicators “suggest a strong pipeline of housing for 2022”, although the construction industry’s capacity to exceed the 20 per cent increase needed to meet Housing for All targets for 2022 remains to be seen. As the first step in achieving Housing for All’s headline target of an average of […]

The Housing Alliance is a collaboration between some of Ireland’s largest AHBs to provide more and better homes. Our members delivered the State’s first cost rental homes and provide almost 30,000 homes to social tenants; 40 per cent of the national social housing pipeline is currently provided by Housing Alliance […]

Later in 2022, The Housing Agency will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary. As with all anniversaries, it is a welcome opportunity for the organisation to look back at where we began, our achievements, but crucially, to look forward to where we hope we will be in the next 10 years, […]

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has called into question the sustainability of the model which has led to the State funding two-fifths private rental tenancies, describing it as “questionable”. In analysis looking at trends in spending and outputs of social and state supported housing over the decade to 2020, the […]

The Land Development Agency (LDA) is the State’s primary channel for the development of cost rental housing with a mission to unlock state land and make more efficient use of it to deliver large-scale affordable housing projects. LDA CEO John Coleman writes. The LDA is currently active on 12 sites […]

The Government published its National Policy on Architecture in May 2022 following Cabinet approval. Places for People seeks to promote “the power of architecture and design to bring about a more sustainable society”. The policy has been designed with the explicit goal of support the implementation of “architectural and built […]

Respond has been delivering homes as part of integrated communities for people across the country for 40 years. Over this time, the Approved Housing Body has demonstrated its track record for both scale and capacity to successfully deliver large and complex projects. Respond works together with its partners and multiple […]

As costs in construction materials continue to inflate, a survey has found that 91 per cent of construction companies expect further rises in Q2 2022, and that 89 per cent are unwilling to take on fixed-price contracts as a result. Costs The Construction Outlook Survey, undertaken by the Construction Industry […]

Now that some time has passed since the introduction of the Affordable Housing Act 2021, Fidelma McManus considers the delivery and affordability of cost rental units to date and discusses the potential impact of the Affordable Purchase Schemes on affordability. The cost rental model On 21 July 2021, the Affordable […]

“There is no planet B”. This phrase says it all. We are in the midst of a climate crisis, and one could argue, and some have, that we are actually facing an existential crisis of survival. Also, the sixth mass extinction of biodiversity is well and truly underway, except this […]

Darragh O’Brien TD has been Minister for Housing for two years. His record, like that of his predecessor Eoghan Murphy, can be judged by the numbers, writes Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin TD. House prices are up 22 per cent and rents are up 15 per cent since […]

Irish Water’s Housing Programme Director Yvonne Harris is making the delivery of housing in Ireland her top priority, leading a new housing programme for the water utility. The challenges facing the Irish housing sector are well known. Lack of supply for both private and social housing, rising building costs and […]

The future use of rent controls “should be considered an essential part of the rental market policy tools”, an Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) study has suggested. The recommendation comes after an assessment by the ESRI found that the introduction of Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs), aimed at holding rent […]

As Ireland’s third biggest local authority with a population of some 300,000, Fingal currently has over 104,000 households and the demand for more homes is growing rapidly, particularly as the county has Ireland’s fastest growing and youngest population. Situated to the north of Dublin City, Fingal covers an area of […]

Through international collaboration on Housing First, the eradication of homelessness can happen before the EU’s target of 2030, believe the Y-Foundation’s Juha Kahila and Saija Turunen. The Y-Foundation, which is Finland’s fourth largest landlord, owns 18,000 apartments in 57 cities and municipalities in the country. The foundation is actively involved […]

Fiona Cormican, Director of New Business, Clúid Housing, discusses how approved housing bodies, the State, and the private sector need to work together to overcome the challenges facing the housing sector. To quote a senior civil servant in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: “It’s all about delivery.” […]

Mark O’Donnell, Deputy Secretary of Housing, Urban Regeneration and Local Government in the Northern Ireland Executive’s Department for Communities (DfC) discusses housing priorities and the progress made in implementing the transformative housing programme. “The first priority was the Housing Supply Strategy, aimed at giving everybody access to a good quality, […]

Peter McVerry Trust, the national housing and homelessness charity, is championing the sustainable delivery of social housing and working to bring vacant properties back into use. The charity, which is active in 28 of 31 local authorities across the State, worked with over 10,000 people and helped 1,200 people secure […]

Amid concerns around increased pressure on Ireland’s housing waiting list, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien TD has said that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) aims to fully implement Housing for All, while government seeks to accommodate the needs of Ukrainian refugees. In April 2022, the Minister […]

In order to ensure that approved housing bodies (AHBs) are run effectively, the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (AHBRA) was established by the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Act 2019. One of its main requirements was to establish a set of standards for AHBs in relation to governance, financial […]

With the first full year of the roll out of Housing for All, approved housing bodies (AHBs), or also commonly known as housing associations, are actively involved in a range of measures to support local authorities in meeting their social and affordable housing targets, as well as contributing to other […]

Director of Social Affairs in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Katarina Ivanković Knežević, discusses the role of the new European Platform on Combatting Homelessness. Knežević points to the launch of the European Platform to Combat Homelessness, through the signing of a declaration in Lisbon in […]

2022 is destined to be a very busy year, not just for Oaklee Housing but for the housing sector as a whole, says Oaklee Housing CEO, Sharon Cosgrove. As pressure mounts for expedited delivery of new homes, the focus for Oaklee Housing remains firmly set on the key pillars as […]

Described in Housing for All as “the most radical reform of the Irish rental system in the history of the State”, cost rental housing offers an alternative model to rent rates based on profit maximisation. Now, however, the challenge for government is delivering it at scale. Under the Government’s cost […]

The development of ‘own door’ housing solutions in Ireland’s towns centres to address the demands of an ageing population is being planned as part of a multi-billion-euro investment to tackle vacancy and combat dereliction. The percentage of the State’s population aged 65 or over is expected to dramatically increase from […]

In May 2022, the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) introduced a new Inflation/Supply Chain Delay Co-operation Framework to provide some relief to contractors experiencing increasing pressure due to sustained high levels of inflation and delays due to a shortage of raw materials, writes Angelyn Rowan, partner at Philip Lee. The […]

The decarbonisation agenda poses an existential challenge to housing associations but also presents a huge collaborative opportunity, argues Gary Orr, the Chief Executive of Abri Group, one of the UK’s largest housing associations. Orr, the head of a large housing association operating primarily in the south of England with over […]

Ireland’s commendable humanitarian effort to house upwards of 200,000 Ukrainian refugees has starkly highlighted the very severe imbalances that still exist between supply and demand in the Irish housing market, writes Marie Hunt, Executive Director of CBRE Ireland. While the current administration last year launched their ambitious 10-year Housing for […]

A 15-year plan to deliver over 100,000 homes, including over 33,000 social homes, and address supply-related pressures in Northern Ireland has been further delayed, with no new timeline for publication. Initially disrupted due to Covid-19, the delivery of a long-term framework aimed at delivering transformative change to tackle rising levels […]

Head of Asset Management and Property Services, David McCourt, discusses how Co-operative Housing Ireland (CHI) has committed to a series of deep retrofit energy upgrades on the homes of its members to improve quality of life, extend the lifespan of housing and contribute to national plans to reduce long-term dependency […]

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien TD has had his €2.7 billion mica redress scheme approved by Cabinet, extending the scope of the redress to homes in Clare and Limerick, but campaigners have decried the scheme’s exclusion of further deleterious materials and the foundations of affected […]

Addressing vacancy and combating dereliction is essential to ensure the vibrancy and viability of Irish towns and cities and is a key component of the Government’s housing plan, Housing for All, writes Lisa Ledwidge, Senior Staff Officer at The Housing Agency. Despite high housing need, many Irish cities, towns, and […]

Amidst an already strained housing market, a flurry of external punches to global supply chains in the shape of the coronavirus pandemic followed by the war in Ukraine has seen construction costs spiral, threatening the viability of housing throughout Ireland, write Joanna Bannon and Paddy Smyth of Fieldfisher LLP. New […]

Despite many believing the Covid-19 pandemic would serve to burst Ireland’s Airbnb bubble, recent figures show that Airbnb availability now outstrips long-term rental homes in every county. In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent restrictions gripped the country, Airbnb hosts quickly felt the financial impact of cancellations and […]

Passed before the cessation of the last Northern Ireland Executive’s tenure, the Private Tenancies Bill seeks to protect the rights of private tenants by halting the increasing of rents more than once per year and extending notice to quit periods issued by landlords. The Private Tenancies Bill, which passed through […]

Our Housing Rights: Tackling the Housing Crisis Disabled People Face is a joint campaign between Independent Living Movement Ireland and Inclusion Ireland which was launched in September 2021. James Cawley, Policy Officer, Independent Living Movement Ireland (ILMI), writes. ILIMI and Inclusion Ireland undertook the development of a report, based on […]