Contracts signed for 247 cost-rental apartments in Dublin 

Project Tosaigh aims to 'unlock' land in private ownership that has planning permission but where delivery has stalled due to financing and other constraints.

Contracts have been signed for the first 247 Dublin homes under the Government's Project Tosaigh scheme.

The scheme was announced last year and sees the Land Development Agency (LDA) work with developers on sites which have full planning permissions but have not commenced work.

Under the plan announced on Wednesday, the LDA has signed contracts with the McGarrell Reilly Group, for the delivery of 247 cost-rental apartments in Hansfield, Dublin 15. Construction has commenced on site and delivery of the homes is expected to take place during 2024. The homes will be made available to rent by the LDA upon completion, having been purchased from McGarrell Reilly in a forward sale.

The announcement follows the contracting of 95 homes in Mallow, Co Cork last month.

Project Tosaigh was announced last year in the Government strategy, Housing For All, to "unlock" land in private ownership that has planning permission but where delivery has stalled due to financing and other constraints.

Housing target

In a recent parliamentary response, Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien said that the target under Project Tosaigh is the delivery of 5,000 new homes in the years 2022-2026 for affordable cost rental or sale to eligible households under affordable purchase arrangements.

 An LDA statement said that the agency "now has a pipeline of projects anticipated to deliver around 1,000 affordable for sale and cost-rental homes". The developments are spread across Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Wicklow, Meath and Kildare.

CEO of the LDA John Coleman said that the initiative is "providing an important mechanism for us to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing by supporting housing construction on private land where it had stalled".

"We intend to deliver 5,000 affordable homes by 2026 through this approach, substantially increasing our delivery capability in the short-term. Whilst our longer-term approach continues to focus on publicly owned land, it makes sense for the LDA to step in as a catalyst to speed up affordable homes delivery that is needed now, with the security of knowing all homes will be either retained in public ownership or made available for households to purchase on an affordable basis.”

Mr O'Brien said that the announcement "demonstrates the progress the LDA is making in accelerating the delivery of affordable housing".

The Government recently agreed to extend the Project Tosaigh scheme to activate stalled planning permissions for both cost rental, affordable purchase, and social homes.

In particular, a spokesperson said at the time, the Government will "seek opportunities to convert build-to-rent/private rental sector permissions into social and affordable housing" in order to increase the number of social homes.