THE FIRST AFFORDABLE housing purchase scheme in Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien’s constituency has been delayed by at least a year, with the delays causing stress and worry for applicants. 

The Dun Emer housing scheme in Lusk, Co Dublin was initially due to be fully completed in October 2022, but some residents have been told it will be October this year before they will be able to move in. 

Would-be residents have said that they may lose mortgage approval or be evicted from their rental accommodation before they can move into their new homes.

“I wish I never applied for the scheme,” one person told The Journal.

“I thought we were the luckiest people ever to get this. And I couldn’t believe my luck that we were selected… and to be able to afford something in Dublin.

I was ecstatic. I thought it was the best thing that happened to me. But it has caused so much stress and anxiety and everything is just constant worry.

The Dun Emer scheme consists of 51 homes. A total of 39 of these are affordable housing units, while the remaining 12 are social housing. 

The affordable housing units are a mix of three-bed terraced houses, three-bed semi-detached houses, three-bed duplex apartments, and two-bed apartments. 

The project is being delivered by Fingal County Council, with Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance – a social enterprise that works to deliver affordable housing – acting as the developer.

The entire project was to be delivered in separate phases. It was initially due to be fully completed by October 2022 but the development has been beset by delays, with the first of the new home owners only moving in in the first three months of this year.

As things stand, Kilhedge Court – the final phase of 16 homes – has yet to be completed and made ready for the new residents to move in.

Affordable housing in Fingal

Minister O’Brien turned the sod himself on the affordable housing development back in May 2021, calling it the “first affordable purchase housing scheme in the county in 11 years”.

Under the rules of the Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme, first-time buyers who are below a certain income threshold can apply to their local authority (in this case Fingal County Council) for help in buying a home in certain developments at below the market value.

The council then takes a percentage of the equity share of the home equal to the amount taken off the price (the percentage can be between 5% and 40%). So if a person gets 15% off the market value of the house, the local authority takes a 15% equity share. This must be paid back by the homeowners within 40 years, but can be paid back at any time.

People who want to be considered for the scheme must still be able to get a mortgage or local authority home loan to pay the remainder of the balance. A 10% deposit is required for first-time buyers getting a mortgage, but people can avail of the Revenue-operated Help to Buy Scheme in order to secure this.

People applying for the Dun Emer affordable homes were notified late in the summer and autumn of 2021 that they had been successful in their applications. They had to immediately pay a €4,000 deposit to Ó Cualann in order to secure their home.

Applicants were informed that the final phase would be completed by October 2022. However, by the end of last year no one had moved into an affordable home on the scheme.

Minister O’Brien has remained closely linked to the project, and last December he posted on Facebook about visiting the development.

“Visiting the first affordable purchase development in Fingal under #HousingforAll,” the post said.

These homes in Dun Emer are beautiful, top quality homes & it was great to meet the new home owners. We need, and we will deliver much much more.

O’Brien also appeared in a promotional video for the housing estate with Fingal County Council officials at the time, saying it was “great to meet residents today who are moving into their homes”.

However, at the time just the first phase of the affordable housing scheme had been fully completed after delays, with the remaining phases still incomplete.

Due to issues with utilities, the first residents were unable to fully move into their homes until February and March of this year.

On 8 March, O’Brien said that the affordable homes “are now complete” in response to a Parliamentary Question from Labour Party TD Duncan Smith (who is from the same constituency).

“It should be noted that Fingal County Council has recently delivered one of the first affordable purchase housing schemes in the State which is located at Dun Emer, Lusk,” O’Brien said.

These homes are now completed and are now being made available to the allocated purchasers at sales prices of at least 15% below market prices.

At the time, however, construction on Kilhedge Court had not been fully completed, and it is not expected now that works onsite will be completed until at least the end of September, with residents now due to move in in early October.

In response to a query from The Journal, a Department of Housing spokesperson said that homes were due to be completed in 2022. 

“In March, construction of the first phase of the scheme was complete and the conveyancing of that phase was underway and nearing finalisation (all those sales closed by the end of March),” the spokesperson said. They said, therefore, that Minister O’Brien was correct when he informed the Dáil that Fingal had “recently delivered” the scheme, and that the homes “are now complete”. 

Developer and contractor response

In an interview with The Journal, Hugh Brennan, CEO of Ó Cualann, John Moore, head of operations with Ó Cualann, and Conor Farrell, the director of OHF Group, the building contractor employed to construct the Dun Emer scheme, said they understood the frustrations of residents and gave a number of reasons for the delays.

Brennan said that the delay in completion was down to a number of factors, including a later-than-expected starting date, and complications because of the price of materials and the Covid-19 pandemic, which have slowed down construction projects across the country.

He said there have also been delays with connecting utilities to completed homes which has slowed down people being able to move in.

Brennan said that originally the homes were to be built by timber frame construction, which is usually quicker than a traditional brick and block build. However, the price of timber rose significantly in 2021 and 2022 as a result of supply line issues and the war in Ukraine.

“If you’re a private developer, how do you manage that? You charge more for the houses, but we couldn’t charge [more] for the houses,” Brennan said.

We were restricted, there was an agreed price there for an affordable house. So it had to be re-engineered. So we went back to brick and block. And that essentially has added on most of the time.

Brennan said that the project completion date was then pushed into July of this year, but further delays have arisen as a result of workers getting Covid-19.

And this happened on numerous occasions. I mean, honestly, you would not believe it. But that’s… totally out of our control. 

Brennan said that the future residents were being kept up to date at all times from OHF as to how the development was progressing.

Brennan and Moore said there were also delays as a result of negotiations between banks and local authorities over finalising the “priorities agreements” on the affordable homes. These agreements have to do with banks being offered guarantees in case people default on their mortgages, and they were only finalised late in 2022.

This meant many applicants could not secure mortgages until then, which affected financing for the build. 

John Moore said he understood the frustrations of residents, particularly in relation to the changing dates of completion, and that Ó Cualann and the developer were doing their utmost to ensure the homes will be fully complete by the end of September at the latest.

“I think we can understand where those people are at, and we need them in, we need the site finished, we need to move on to the next one,” he said.

And our contractor is pushing hard to get out. Because… we’re not finished until we walk out the gate, and we need to get out.

Conor Farrell said that the final homes were practically complete (meaning all the primary construction work had been done), but that the final stages of a new build involves “many third parties”. He said he was liaising regularly with the residents to ensure they were kept up to date with every development.

The new homes still need to be connected to electricity and water, and the final BCMS process needs to be carried out. This is the process in which all the parties involved certify that the development is completed and the homes are ready to be lived in.

“So we feel we’re doing everything within our power when it comes to ensuring the scheme is handed over in October,” Farrell said, though multiple estimated completion dates have been given and have passed by since last year.

Criticism 

Ó Broin also criticised Minister O’Brien, saying he needed to do more to ensure the homes were completed.

“If [the minister] is willing to avail of photo opportunities with prospective buyers before the development is finished, he needs to be hands on and put every pressure he can to get this complete,” said Ó Broin.

I think Darragh O’Brien needs to talk directly to the affected purchasers, but ultimately as the Minister for Housing he should be doing everything he can.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Fingal County Council said that it was “regrettable that there have been delays in the delivery of these affordable homes by Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance CLG and O’Hanlon Farrell.”

“We have been informed that the delays are due to connecting utilities and some supply chain issues.

Fingal County Council continues to liaise with the AHB and the contractor on a daily basis to ensure that these homes are completed as soon as possible and made available to the families to move in. The Council has also requested that they update the purchasers on a regular basis.

The Department of Housing spokesperson said that the minister and the department “are disappointed that there have been delays in the delivery of these affordable homes by the contracted developer, and that the final phase remains incomplete”.

The spokesperson said that the latest information available to it confirmed that the “last homes on the site will be completed and handed over within two weeks”.

Given the delay on the contractor’s part, it is helpful that Fingal is undertaking the conveyancing matters in advance of delivery so that keys can be handed over to the 16 individuals and families concerned on construction completion without further delay.

The future residents of Dun Emer have been given many different completion dates already, but they are hoping that this will be the last.

“When we got it, I couldn’t believe it, I just kept reading the email like, did we actually get this?” one said.

But now I wish I never accepted it. If I had known that this was going to happen, I would have just said no thank you.