Cork ‘could run out of land for new builds’ within 18 months
The stark warning came from the chief executive of Cork County Council, who said the housing supply situation in Cork is “more acute” than that of the Dublin region.
Tim Lucey’s comments come a week after the council submitted two applications to the Government’s strategic infrastructure investment fund for almost €100m to help unlock development potential at strategic sites in the metropolitan area in a bid to deliver thousands of private homes.
Mr Lucey told a briefing of key stakeholders, including developers Owen O’Callaghan and Michael O’Flynn, that Cork city centre, suburbs, and large towns have serviced land with planning permissions to provide for housing construction for 18 months at normal building rates of between 2,800 and 3,000 units per annum.
However, while the council has enough zoned land to cater for house building for the next decade, he said the strategic sites identifiedneed to be serviced with a range of infrastructure such as water, electricity, gas, and access roads.
“The population growth in the county metropolitan areas must be facilitated with a strong serviced land supply,” he said.
“It is critical that a strategic infrastructure investment fund be put in place to ensure that the council can bring some level of certainty to house builders on the delivery of infrastructure such as road improvements, drainage schemes, railway bridges, and recreational facilities, supported by the capacity to acquire the land for this, and then to be able to respond to market conditions as the financing model for those in the private sector house constructions business improves.”
The council has sought funding to unlock the development potential of lands at five strategic sites in metro Cork, including Ballincollig, Glanmire, Carrigtwohill, Midleton, and Carrigaline.
It has also sought funding to support the delivery of infrastructure at 14 other locations across the county — seven of which are in metropolitan Cork.
Mr Lucey said that while the city needs more apartments, metropolitan Cork will face significant growth challenges unless about 75% of the housing build over the next decade is standard housing estate-type units.
A series of local area plans for the county, which are due to published over the coming months, estimate a building rate of 3,000 units a year, over the next 12 years.
Preliminary results from the 2016 census showed the population of Cork City rose by 5.4% — its first increase in 25 years — to just over 125,000 people, while the population of the county rose 4.2% to just under 400,000.
