Call to ‘streamline’ planning process

There is enough land zoned and potentially available in Dublin to provide housing for 269,000 people, although the planning permission system is acting as a constraint on the number of units being released on the market.

According to a report commissioned by the Society of Chartered Surveyors in Ireland, there is 2,233 hectares of land zoned across the capital’s four main local authorities, which could supply housing units for 269,000 people.

The report found that there is a minimum requirement for 35,000 houses in Dublin over the next four years, but only 26,000 planning permissions have been granted for that timeframe.

Simon Stokes, chairman of the Residential Agency Group of the SCSI, said while the figures showed there was ample land zoned as residential for new housing in the Dublin City Council area as a whole, the shortfall in planning permissions in the area needed to be addressed urgently.

“This new SCSI study provides further evidence for the need to start building new homes in Dublin to address the housing supply shortage and ease the pace of property price inflation.

“The situation in the Dublin City Council is critical while the situation in South Dublin County Council is very serious. It’s clear these are the two areas which require urgent attention.”

The lack of supply is most acute for Dublin City Council. It has a requirement of 14,000 housing units between now and 2018, but planning permissions have only been granted for 1,300 units. South County Dublin has a requirement of 9,000 but planning permissions for 4,200 units.

In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, there is a minimum housing requirement of 3,300 units. Planning permission exists for some 4,200 units, giving a 28% unit surplus.

In Fingal County Council where there is over 1,000 hectares of zoned land potentially available, the minimum housing requirement is 9,600 units but planning permission has been granted for almost 17,000 units, a 75% unit surplus.

“We need more developers and builders to work with the local authorities to begin more new developments in these areas and to increase the number of planning permissions where demand exists.

“For this to happen, we need to improve levels of availability of development finance, provide upfront infrastructure and ensure a streamlined planning process — measures contained within the Government’s Construction 2020 Strategy.”