700 cost rental homes in the pipeline in Cork city via approved housing body Respond

A scheme of 114 homes in Blackpool is due for completion in early 2027, while a large scheme on the southside will take about three years

Work is underway at the former Millfield Service Station site on Redforge Road, Blackpool where Wall Construction is building 114 apartments on behalf of landlord Respond. The approved housing body expects the development to be completed in Q1 2027, with the the first tenants moving in shortly after. Picture Dan Linehan

MORE than 700 cost-rental apartments are in the pipeline in Cork City in two developments backed by approved housing body Respond.

Work is underway at the former Millfield Service Station site on Redforge Rd in Blackpool, where Wall Construction is building 114 homes, due their first tenant intake in early 2027.

Across the city, Respond is working with builder/developer Cairn Homes to deliver 606 apartments at the Creamfields site near Kinsale Rd, following Dairygold’s €25.6m sale of the former CMP Dairies site to the developer earlier this year. It was the largest land deal of Q3 and the first time the largest quarterly transaction took place outside of Dublin since the second quarter of 2023.

Cairn is also about to embark on a transformational housing scheme on the outskirts of Blarney village, earmarked to deliver up to 3,000 homes over the next 10 years.

The Blackpool site, which does not involve Cairn Homes, will deliver 77 one-bed and 37 two bed apartments in blocks ranging from four to nine storeys, and will include a retail unit at ground level. It will be a predominantly cost-rental scheme, with 102 units earmarked for cost rental, and 12 for social housing.

It’s a far smaller scheme than the Creamfields development, which will include a 15-story landmark building, creating a new focal point in the city. 

An artist's impression of the Creamfields' site

The 606-unit residential element of the scheme will deliver a total of 225 social and 381 cost-rental apartments on a site opposite Musgrave Park and close to the South Ring Rd and Tramore Valley Park. Work is underway at the site with the project expected to take three years to deliver.

The Blackpool site was acquired by Bellmount Developments in 2019, who acquired planning permisson for the project. Previously the company’s directors, Seamus and Pádraig Kelleher, estimated the development would cost €30m. Respond declined to put on figure on the project citing commercial sensitivities.

A spokesperson said: “Respond delivers homes at the lowest possible cost delivering value for money for the State while ensuring quality and sustainability.”

All of the Blackpool homes will be built to NZEB standard to ensure energy efficiency and lower running costs for tenants.

The Blackpool development is part of Respond’s ongoing work to deliver high-quality, social and cost rental homes in Cork and nationally. Under the Government’s cost-rental scheme, rents must be a minimum of 25% below local open market values. The initiative is targeted at people who don’t qualify for social housing but who can’t afford the market. Cork city’s first cost-rental scheme opened at Lancaster Gate, on Western Rd three years ago, following a collaboration between O’Callaghan Properties (OCP) and approved housing body Clúid.

Respond already has 1,189 homes and 2,714 tenants in Cork and, in the past five years, delivered 519 homes in the city and 168 homes in the county, providing homes for 1,664 people.

A spokesperson said Cork “continues to be a key delivery area for Respond, and we are committed to expanding social and cost rental housing supply in the region, working in partnership with Cork City Council and Cork County Council, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Housing Finance Agency and The Housing Agency”.

Respond’s Redforge Rd development is close to another highly successful Respond scheme which saw two rows of historic mill-worker cottages taken out of dereliction and transformed into 18 smartly presented two-bed social homes, housing 38 tenants.

'Before' pic of Millfield Cottages, once home to mill workers. 

The Millfield Cottages development was completed in July 2024, and tenants moved in the same year.

'After' pic of the smartly transformed Millfield Cottages

The cottages were once home to families who worked for the nearby Sunbeam Wolsey textile factory, once one of Cork’s big traditional employers. The scheme was awarded the Small Regeneration Award at the Irish Council for Social Housing Awards 2025.