Clúid to tender for €150m worth of social housing in County Cork
The view from one of Clúid Housing's cost-rental homes in Cork City. The housing body said that should more than 30% of the units in any proposed scheme be comprised of apartments, it would be required to be located in a town or city centre.
Housing body Clúid is set to tender for €150m worth of social housing developments in Co Cork for delivery over four years at an average cost of no more than €385,000 per home.
Clúid has requested tenders from up to 10 “suitably qualified and competent” developers with full planning permission already obtained on the relevant sites to apply for the contract to build homes on 10 separate lots, all within Cork county.
In its guidance document for applicant developers, the body said it was seeking proposals for the establishment of “social residential schemes within the proximity of public services and amenities”.
It said that the applications it receives will be evaluated in the context of providing “the most optimum solution... in terms of creating a great place to live and value for money”.
Clúid said that should more than 30% of the units in any proposed scheme be comprised of apartments, it would be required to be located in a town or city centre. In addition, all developments must comply with the local authority’s development plan.
Any scheme should aim for 25% two-bed bungalows or apartment units, 65% three-bed houses, and 10% four-bed dwellings, or alternatively should match the social housing needs of the local authority, the documents said.
The average price of any single unit should not exceed €385,000, inclusive of VAT. For comparison, the average price of a home in Cork county in the last three months of 2023 was €287,000, and €338,000 in the city.
Last January, Clúid officially opened the €40m 112-unit Green Lane development on the site of the former Blackpool flats in Cork City, expected to provide affordable homes for more than 150 people.
Approved housing bodies such as Clúid are non-profit organisations, part-funded by the State, charged with the delivery of affordable rented accommodation for people who cannot afford private rents or buy their own homes.
They are currently the largest single providers of social housing across the State. Tenants are generally sourced from local authority waiting lists and typically will occupy the property they are allocated for life.
Under the new contract, developers submitting their tenders would be obligated to provide a minimum of 20 units and a maximum of 150 in each distinct development.
Last September, Clúid warned the Department of Housing that the approved housing body sector had been subject to substantial increases in the level of debt being carried by individual bodies, a trend which represented a “significant financial risk”, in the words of Cluid itself.
In a report for the department, the body asserted that those debt levels were putting in doubt the provision of at least 40,000 social homes across the country.
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