An Bord Pleanala has locked out institutional investors from snapping up en masse housing units from a 194 unit residential development in Maynooth, Co Kildare.
This follows the appeals board attaching a condition to grant permission to Cairn Homes for the €71 million scheme where the board has ruled that corporate entities cannot purchase new houses from the development and that houses can only be sold to individual purchasers.
The scheme for Dunboyne Road, Maynooth is made up of 119 houses, 31 apartments, 36 duplex apartments and eight one bedroom maisonette apartment dwellings.
The condition relates to houses and duplex units in the scheme and, in its formal order, the board state that it has imposed the condition to ensure an adequate choice and supply of housing in the common good.
The condition attached to the Maynooth Strategic Housing Development (SHD) scheme follows a report earlier this year that an entire housing estate in a different part of Maynooth had been purchased by an institutional investor.
This sparked a push back against the bulk buying of new homes and resulted in the Government imposing a 10 per cent stamp duty on the bulk buying of homes by institutional investors.
Restriction of sales
In July, it emerged that houses at the Mullen Park development in Maynooth would not be sold to an investment fund after all but will instead be sold to individual buyers.
The board has attached a similar condition restricting the sale of houses to individual buyers for a new 102 residential unit development granted ‘fast track’ planning permission for Tuam Road in Galway.
The scheme by Alber Developments is made up of 67 houses and 35 apartments.
In relation to the Cairn Homes plan, the firm has put an indicative price tag of €6.3 million on 19 units it is planning to sell to Kildare County Council for social housing.
An Bord Pleanala gave the scheme the go-ahead after Kildare County Council recommended that planning permission be granted.
The appeals board inspector, Rónán O’Connor, also recommended that planning permission be granted after concluding that the height, mass and scale of the development is acceptable.
Mr O'Connor also concluded that the future occupiers of the scheme will benefit from a high standard of internal amenity and the proposal will contribute significantly to the public realm.
Mr O'Connor also concluded that the provision of a higher density development at this location is desirable.
