LAST UPDATE | 28 Mar 2023

THE LAND DEVELOPMENT Agency has estimated that just under 10,000 new homes could be developed on State-owned land in the next five to ten years

A new report from the LDA has detailed that there are 83 State-owned sites across 10 cities and towns that could accommodate up to 67,000 new homes in total.

The report details how there are approximately 9,760 homes that could be delivered in the next five to ten years, with low levels of constraints on redeveloping these sites with housing.

However, there is a much larger number of potential homes in longer term sites, which the LDA has called Class 2 and Class 3 sites.

In total, there are approximately 17,440 potential homes within Class 2 sites while there are a further 39,710 potential homes within Class 3 sites.

Some of the sites within the report include the Conyngham Road Bus Depot and Sandyford Mint in Dublin, as well as the ESB Networks premises on Sarsfield Road in Cork, land at Galway Harbour and the North Docks Bus Depot in Waterford.

The LDA is a commercial, State-sponsored body that was established to coordinate land within public control that could provide affordable and social housing.

The report itself has been criticised by Opposition politicians, with Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns labelling the number of houses that could be delivered in the next decade as “pathetic”.

Speaking to reporters at the launch of the report, LDA Chief Executive John Coleman said that the LDA were in discussion with public bodies about the potential to use their existing land, but that it may be best to tackle some of the “lower-hanging fruit” first.

This would be existing vacant publicly-owned sites, rather than sites that are currently in use by Government departments and State bodies.

Dearbhla Lawson, the Head of Strategic Planning at the LDA said that State-owned land “was one of our most important and valuable assets”.

“This is an opportunity for us here to make the best use of public land in the public interest,” Lawson said.

Almost half of the sites (38) are in Dublin, 14 are in Cork, six in Limerick, eight in Galway and four in Waterford.

The sites are also located in five regional centres, including four in both Sligo and Dundalk, two apiece in Letterkenny and Athlone, and one in Drogheda.

While much of the land involved is brownfield and located in existing urban centres, other sites are currently in use by public bodies. These include port, bus and rail facilities.

As a result, any plans by Government to develop housing on them will require consultation.

Coleman added that there are additional sites not included in the new report, which he dubbed as Class 4. These sites would have massive constraints on building public housing, and cited Dublin Port as a potential Class 4 site.

Any move to develop affordable or social housing on lands in use by public bodies will be “subject to due diligence, consultation, and the normal planning processes”.

It’s understood Cabinet were informed that the process is likely to be complex, and that projects will take varying lengths of time to complete depending on the level of constraints involved.

Coleman said that the LDA are currently engaged in discussions with public bodies who operate on publicly owned land and admitted that different Government organisations did not have mandates to deliver housing.

“Our mandate is to deliver affordable housing on state lands. Sometimes, and we just have to accept this, that those mandates contradict each other.

“It’s a question of priorities and it’s a question of understanding what is possible on those lands and for the people who have the power to do something about that, to be informed.”

He added that the Government needed to play a “significant” role in the delivery of housing on the public land set out in the report.

The LDA also has an existing near-term delivery pipeline, which includes 5,000 affordable homes, either under construction or in planning, and 5,000 Project Tosaigh, affordable purchase and cost rental homes.

Project Tosaigh is a market engagement initiative that aims to accelerate delivery of housing on sites with full planning permission that are not currently being developed by private sector owners due to financing and other constraints.

The project aims to deliver 5,000 affordable homes for purchase or rent by the end of 2026.

Political response

At Leaders’ Questions this afternoon, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns hit out at the number of homes that could be delivered in the next ten years as “pathetic”.

“Five years after its establishment, The Land Development Agency has finally gotten around to conducting a review of property assets controlled by state companies,” Cairns said.

“What did it find? Fewer than 10,000 homes are capable of being delivered on State lands within the next decade.

“It really is pathetic. I think people reading those reports today will be utterly bewildered, and if they’re angry, I can understand that too.

“They should be outraged at this utter incompetence.”

Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin told reporters this morning that the report detailing that there are large swathes of land available for development would “come as a shock to nobody”.

“Almost all of the sites they have listed are sites we have known for many years that could be suitable locations for housing,” Ó Broin said.

“What the report doesn’t say is that the Land Development Agency can do literally nothing to force those state agencies to transfer the land to the LDA because the govt refused to give the Land Development Agency comprehensive compulsory purchase order powers, something we [Sinn Féin] called for at the time.

“Therefore, while we know there are very significant volumes of good quality land in good locations that could be used for public housing, the LDA has one hand tied behind its back in terms of accessing that.”