About 80,000 new homes are expected to be built in 2004 for the 12th record-breaking year, but it could take another five years before Part V of the Planning and Development Act delivers significant numbers of social and affordable new homes. Tim O'Brien in Galway.
That is the opinion of key Construction Industry Federation (CIF) figures, who said yesterday that the measure - which delivered just 163 houses and apartments out of a total output of 69,000 new homes last year - could take up to seven years to be effective. The scheme was implemented by most local authorities about two years ago.
And the federation warned that for Part V to deliver significant numbers of houses, local authorities would have to become "more flexible" about whether to insist on taking 20 per cent of new development lands, or work out another approach with property-developers.
Commenting on figures reported in yesterday's Irish Times, the federation's director of housing, Mr Hubert Fitzpatrick, said the industry was still building "significant numbers" of new homes on planning permission granted before the new social and affordable requirements were brought into effect.
At the federation's conference in GalwayMr Fitzpatrick said the provisions applied only since local authorities adopted their housing strategies, many of which were quite recent.
Some deals between local authorities and builders might not yet be concluded, and in a number of cases lands might have been transferred, as required by the Planning Act, to the local authorities.
Urging the local authorities to be more flexible, Mr Fitzpatrick said a planning authority could take housing units on site, instead of the statutory 20 per cent of zoned land. A planning authority could also take housing units elsewhere or indeed land elsewhere or a financial contribution from the property-developer.
There were also other partnerships between the public and private sector which had resulted in affordable houses being provided outside the Part V requirement, and he instanced large estates in the Fingal area of north Dublin where this had happened.
However, in relation to house prices, Mr Fitzpatrick maintained "you do not have a national affordability problem", pointing out that new homes were selling rapidly as proof of affordability.
With over 180,000 new homes delivered during the last three years alone, the industry believes demand will level off next year but will not lead to a fall in prices.
The CIF director general, Mr Liam Kelleher, said the federation did not believe demand would remain at current levels, but greater output would lead to price stability for home-buyers.