Glenveagh chief Steven Garvey urges Dept of Finance to do more for housing

'Finance and expenditure need to come out with policies, because the Dept of Housing can’t solve this on its own'

The chief executive of housing developer Glenveagh Stephen Garvey has said the departments of finance, and public expenditure and reform, need “to come out with policies” to aid in the building of homes.

The chief executive of housing developer Glenveagh has said the departments of finance, and public expenditure and reform, need “to come out with policies” to aid in the building of homes.

Glenveagh chief executive Stephen Garvey was speaking following his company’s annual general meeting in Dublin on Thursday.

In advance of the meeting, Glenveagh said it expects to deliver 2,600 new homes during 2025, following a “strong start to the year”.

The value of its closed and forward order book across both its homebuilding and partnerships segments now stands at €1.23bn — which is an increase of close to 13% from €1.09bn, recorded on March 10 this year.

Speaking to the media, Mr Garvey defended the current housing minister James Browne, saying he is “getting a rough time” after only being in the job for four months.

Mr Garvey said: “He’s trying to find solutions.

“I really do genuinely think he needs the support of other members of the Cabinet, be it from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, or be it the Department of Finance.”

Mr Garvey said that a range of measures should be looked at, including tax breaks or incentives to try to make it more attractive to develop.

“Finance and expenditure need to come out with policies, because [the Department of] Housing can’t solve this on its own,” he said.

“If there’s tax breaks, we need to accept that.”

He said that back in the early 2000s, apartments were built in the right locations, along with tax incentives.

“Maybe we expanded tax incentives too far, but it was the mechanism used,” he said.

“Should we now say: ‘All solutions need to be on the table’?

“If there can be a multi-faceted solution, be it incentives, be it tax breaks, be it change of product, all of those things need to be examined.”

Mr Garvey added that housing development needs to be funded by the State on a multi-annual basis, to make the funding more accessible, rather than deciding what to spend every year.

“We need to dictate how much money is going to go into it and make sure if you draw a little bit more this year, so be it, or if you draw a little bit less,” he said.

In terms of its outlook for the rest of the year, Glenveagh said that progress in its homebuilding segment is aligning “firmly with expectations” with over 1,100 units are either sold, signed, or reserved for 2025, “reflecting very strong underlying demand for the group’s high-quality homes across all selling sites”.

The company also said that non-core land sales totalling more than €50m are at complete, contracted, or sale agreed stage.

The company said the first half of 2025 is expected to be “materially stronger” compared to the same period in 2024, “with increased units, revenue, and profitability”, but the weighting of each towards the second half of the year will persist.

The housing developer said: “Continued confidence in delivering 1,500 homebuilding units and achieving partnerships revenue of approximately €400m in 2025, in addition to completing over €100m in non-core land sales across 2025 and 2026.

“Total equivalent home deliveries are expected to reach approximately 2,600 in 2025.”

Glenveagh will release its 2025 interim results on September 25.

Housing developer expects to deliver 2,600 new homes this year