No social housing at Ires Reit’s new upmarket Dublin 4 development

Dublin City Council has agreed a €2 million social housing deal with hotel operator Dalata for its Tara Towers development on the Merrion Road.

In order to fulfil Part V social-housing obligations for the development, which will be home to a four-star Maldron hotel as well as 69 apartments owned by Ires Reit, Dublin City Council has acquired seven apartments at the nearby Elm Park development in Dublin 4.

This means that there will be no requirement for social-housing units at the upmarket apartment development, which will be run by Ires Reit, Ireland’s largest private landlord.

The former Jurys Doyle Hotel is being redeveloped as a Maldron hotel by Dalata. The hotel is expected to open in 2022, with the residential element of the redevelopment – 12 one-bed, 43 two-bed and 14 three-bed apartments – also expected to be handed over next year, after Covid-related delays.

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Social housing

According to a spokesman for the council, the total cost of the acquisition was €2,035,000. The sale closed on September 6th and the properties are now tenanted.

The provision of apartments at Elm Park, also on Merrion Road, would appear to represent better value for the council. The apartments at Tara Towers are expected to be of a high spec, many with sea views across Dublin Bay, and Ires Reit expects them to appeal to a wide range of prospective tenants including executives, foreign embassies and those seeking to trade down.

But they are also expensive. Ires Reit agreed to pay €47 million for the 69 apartments, or an average of €681,159 each, at the site back in 2018. By comparison, the seven apartments at Elm Park – three one-bed and four two-bed units – work out at about €290,714 per apartment.

It is understood the sale of the apartments at Elm Park is part of a tripartite deal between the council, Dalata and Ires Reit, which currently owns and operates more than 200 apartments at Elm Park,

First introduced back in the early 2000s, Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 provides for social and affordable housing obligations by requiring developers to sell a certain proportion of any new builds to the local council to be used as social housing, currently 10 per cent. The legislation allows councils to agree an alternative arrangement, such as acquiring land on site, or leasing or acquiring units off site.

At the upmarket Lansdowne Place development in Ballsbridge for example, developer Chartered Land acquired a block of apartments in Ringsend for social housing, rather than provide the accommodation at the Ballsbridge development.