Housing delivery in Dublin facing 'exceptional challenges and high risks'

New homes under construction at Kilcarbery Grange in Dublin. However, there are around 39,000 inactive planning permissions in Dublin alone.

The delivery of housing is facing “exceptional challenges and high risks” which are threatening the Government’s housing targets, according to a new report delivered to the Minister for Housing.

These challenges include the long period of time it is taking to complete projects, uncertainty over inflation, and the number of sites with planning permission where work has yet to commence.

The second report from the Dublin Housing Delivery Group (DHDG), which includes local authority heads and Department of Housing officials, highlighted numerous concerns around how new housing developments will be built in the short term.

It said that the challenge to deliver over 17,000 new social homes in Dublin between 2022 and 2026 “cannot be overstated”.

There are exceptional challenges and high risks facing the sector due to inflationary pressures, materials, labour supply, and the war in Ukraine,” it stated.

It noted that developers are highlighting these increased costs as impacting on profit margins, making delivery less viable.

It said that local authorities have felt these impacts through the lower volume of tenders received for social housing projects, and that there is evidence of slowdown of some housing construction projects on site.

Work has ceased on some sites, with matters currently being progressed in accordance with normal contractual arrangements where contracts are being determined," the report states.

"This will lead to delayed delivery of some projects that were in the pipeline for 2022.”

Affordable housing delivery, as envisaged under the Government’s Housing for All strategy, is facing a “key challenge” in the long lead-in times for the delivery of large-scale housing projects. It estimates these lead-ins to be "a minimum of 18 and 24 months for housing, and twice that for apartments".

The report said that variable timespans are an unavoidable part of the housing development process, but they are presenting a “particular challenge” to the delivery of affordable housing in Dublin, “given the urgency of the problem and the volume of units which are needed to meet national targets and pent-up demand”.

Inactive planning permissions

Another area highlighted is the number of units which have been granted planning permission for which no works have yet been undertaken. There are around 39,000 inactive planning permissions in Dublin alone.

The four Dublin local authorities entered “extensive engagement” with the construction market on this matter. 

In the case of South Dublin County Council, it issued a call for turnkey housing delivery proposals, but received no responses. Dublin City Council, meanwhile, sought submissions on existing planning permissions that could be developed into social, affordable, or mixed-tenure housing. Despite "significant engagement" on the matter, just one project was identified.

The report concludes that the challenges for Dublin to provide 37% of the national social housing target and 18.4% of the national affordable housing target in Housing for All are “considerable”, and the DHDG is giving “urgent attention to measures to address shortfalls in the pipeline for social housing delivery”.