Glenveagh pledges to exclude corporate investors from 1,200 home project in Fingal

Property group Glenveagh has promised to shut out corporate investors from a major north Dublin housing project on public land as part of a deal with Fingal county council that will reserve apartments for private buyers and cost-rental tenants.

Glenveagh set out the binding commitments in two letters to the local authority.

The move came before councillors voted at a four-hour meeting last night to allow the company build up to 1,200 houses, apartments and duplex homes on a 28-hectare site that Fingal owns at Ballymastone, Donabate.

The deal allocates 20 per cent of the project for social housing and 20 per cent for affordable homes, but critics of the original deal had attacked the allocation of 60 per cent for private housing on the basis that public land should not be used for expensive homes beyond the reach of many buyers.

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The pledge by Glenveagh relates to the private portion of the project, prompting some councillors to say it could lead to institutional investors being excluded from other housing projects on public lands and private apartments being reserved for cost-rental schemes supported by the State.

“What we’ve done here, I think, is set a precedent that ultimately housing on public lands will not be for the benefit of [real estate investment trusts] profiting,” said Karen Power, a Green councillor, who believes the move is “nationally significant”.

Partnerships

“Local authorities all across the country need to provide housing, and the State owns a significant portion of land. They will need to engage in these partnerships with developers and builders,” Ms Power said.

She had signed a letter from Green councillors to Fingal this month demanding the exclusion of institutions and more cost-rental homes.

“We don’t want to see people being locked out of the property market, and we don’t want to see anything that would contribute to the rental crisis,” she said.

“We put forward suggestions of solutions, and I’m pleased that we were listened to.”

In a letter on Monday to Fingal, Glenveagh chief executive Stephen Garvey gave what he described as an “irrevocable undertaking” to “not sell any houses or duplexes in the private housing element to institutional investors”.

In a second letter on Tuesday, issued hours before councillors met to vote on the project, he provided further “irrevocable” commitments.

“We will offer for sale at least 50 [per cent] of such apartment blocks to any bodies who are permitted to offer cost rental accommodation to tenants pursuant to the State support cost rental scheme,” he said.

“In respect of the balance, we will commit to making first offer to the private market.”

Matthew McAleese, Fingal director of planning, told the meeting that the undertakings were legally binding.

Councillors approved the project by 31 votes to nine, but Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats refused to back it.

Ms Power said she would have found it “very difficult” to support the deal without the commitments made by Glenveagh.

Paul Mulville, a Social Democrat councillor, who wanted the land agreement with Glenveagh amended to reflect the undertakings, said he did not believe the company.

“The serious issue I have is that I just don’t trust a letter from a developer and we’ve seen often in the past promises made by developers gone back on all across the county, all across the country,” he told the meeting.

“The only way to ensure this doesn’t happen . . . is to write this into the disposal agreement today and have it written into the development agreement.

“I personally don’t trust them, and I don’t think we should as a council. I think we should write this into the disposal agreement to [have] it legally 100 per cent.”

Glenveagh’s spokesman said the company had delivered more than 1,900 homes in Ireland since the company was formed four years ago, with 1,150 in the 2021 pipeline and a goal of 3,000 units per year from 2024. Some 93 per cent of the houses and duplexes sold to date had been acquired by first-time buyers, private individuals and the State, he added.

“Given the alignment to our core business, we were happy to give our commitment to Fingal County Council to sell all own-door homes in the private housing element of Ballymastone to first-time buyers and private individuals.”