Developer claims apartments must make up half of new developments to meet housing targets

New apartments must make up 50% of future housing output to meet Ireland’s targets, the chief executive of one of the country's major homebuilders has said.

Cairn Homes chief Michael Stanley told the Oireachtas Housing Committee that the delivery of apartments was essential, citing the need to include apartments in 80% of all new developments.

“The housing industry delivered only 38,000 apartments in the five years to the end of 2024 versus 94,000 lower-density houses and duplexes,” Mr Stanley said.

“We have built much of the less capital-intensive, low-hanging fruit of traditional housing. But the demand for apartments continues to grow.”

He said just 10% of the population live in apartments, compared to the EU average of 48%. Mr Stanley cited the application ratio for cost-rental being 48:1 for every apartment made available.

'Contradiction'

Meanwhile, chief executive of homebuilder Glenveigh, Stephen Garvey, said there was a “contradiction” within the building industry.

“That contradiction lies in the fact that Ireland needs thousands of homes quickly, but it also wants these homes built under an increasingly stringent rule book, while being delivered at the lowest possible price, and not in my back yard,” Mr Garvey said.

He said these aims were “fundamentally incompatible” with one another.

Mr Garvey also hit out at what he described as a “planning elite” who seek perfection, which can lead to project delays or cancellation.

Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin criticised Mr Garvey for the remarks, saying it was “not helpful” and that his description of the elite can include councillors who work on major schemes, like the major Clonburris housing scheme.

Mr Garvey said there should be a standardisation of housing regulations across all 31 local authorities.

“We’ve 31 local authorities, we’ve 31 different standards. If we’re to deliver housing at scale, we need to standardise our approach to deliver housing to get economies of scale. It’s the only way to bring efficiencies into the system,” he said.

Zoning

Meanwhile, there was criticism levelled at local councils during the meeting from Conor O’Connell, the director of housing at the Irish Home Builders Association.

Mr O’Connell said he was “disappointed” that some councils had not followed instructions from the housing minister to zone more land.

“This is happening in the most populous areas of Ireland, where it's simply the case that development plans were adopted several years ago, the land banks are being built out and no replacement land is coming forward,” Mr O’Connell said.

“You’re further constraining supply of zoned land into the sector, and it’s becoming a crisis. It’s becoming an emergency.”

Judicial reviews

Ronan Columb, the group managing director of Castlethorn, said a consequence of judicial reviews is that developers were being “much more careful” about submitting planning applications.

"We’re putting our applications through legal review to make sure that we minimise the chance of there being an error or grounds for a judicial review,” Mr Columb said.

It comes as the Government’s housing plan is expected to be published shortly, with one senior coalition source saying they expected it to be unveiled as soon as November 13.