The Government's plan for affordable housing has come under criticism after it emerged that buyers in one of the first schemes in Dublin will have to pay up to €475,000 for a three-bed home.
The price is almost €170,000 more than the expected level when city councillors approved the scheme in late 2021.
The high cost of the houses at Oscar Traynor Woods in Coolock, 16 of which are due to go on sale next month, means purchasers can have incomes exceeding €106,000 and still qualify as eligible for affordable housing subsidies.
Prices are up to 55 per cent higher than originally indicated, with one beds costing €264,358-€308,750, two beds €355,760-€427,500 and three beds €399,731-€475,000.
Dublin councillor John Lyons called for a pause on the public/private housing development after the prices were revealed by the developer.
“I want the city manager, Richard Shakespeare, to convene a special meeting to actually dig into these numbers," Cllr Lyons told RTÉ radio.
"We need to know what the developers are making as a premium on each of these units. We need to know what the fixed construction costs were agreed in 2021. Has there been any movement on them? That way we can actually get to the heart of why we have such unaffordable prices," he said.
"To think that a three-bedroom home in this affordable purchase scheme would go for €475,000 is outrageous."
He said council members were shocked on Monday when they discovered the prices agreed in October 2021 had increased significantly.
"City council officials told us in October, in November of 2021, before a vast majority of the councillors voted to give away the public land trust, that the three-bed would be no more than €306,000. I think the majority of people in the area, in my constituency and further afield, on decent incomes, middle incomes, could afford this and could have a sustainable mortgage that they could pay off over a long period of time."
The problem with the model of delivery for the 42 acre site of public land was the lack of transparency by the developer in the public/private partnership on what profit they would make on each unit, he said.
Cllr Lyons acknowledged that inflation, an increase in construction and labour costs had to be taken into consideration, but that still did not account for the “massive increase” in the selling cost of the affordable homes.
“As public representatives, it's incumbent upon us to actually see if we can make it more affordable for people, because people are really struggling out there.”
