The Land Development Agency (LDA) has announced the purchase of a site on Dublin’s Naas Road with the potential to deliver over 1,200 cost rental homes.
The State-sponsored body has reached an agreement with the owners to purchase the 3.79-hectare Royal Liver site.
The purchase follows an independent valuation process and is part of the LDA’s private land acquisition initiative.
The announcement comes in the wake of official home completion figures from the Central Statistics Office, showing the number of new homes built last year fell back to just over 30,000 despite Government pledges it would be close to 40,000.
The Royal Liver site is located next to the Luas red line and close to the Grand Canal at the junction of Naas Road and Kylemore Road.
There is existing planning permission for housing development on the land, with an initial first phase delivering at least 465 new homes.
The site is located at the heart of the planned City Edge redevelopment and near to two other affordable, cost rental and social developments being delivered by the LDA in partnership with Dublin City Council at Bluebell and Cherry Orchard Point.
John Coleman, chief executive of the Land Development Agency, said: “This is another major development for the LDA as we continue to deliver the right type of housing in the right place.
“This site is superbly located in a part of Dublin that can accommodate and benefit from more housing, new services, amenities and ultimately new communities.
“We are excited to have closed this deal at a price that will allow us to deliver a high number of well-served and much-needed cost rental apartments and we now look forward to getting construction underway.
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“We are acutely aware of the regeneration plans for the City Edge quarter of Dublin and we are working closely with Dublin City Council to help kick start and provide a stimulus for new housing in the area.
“There is a compelling case for the development of new apartments alongside existing rail and Luas services and the LDA is playing a significant role in delivering such projects. Working with Dublin City Council, we are already active in this area, with our joint plans for Bluebell Waterways and Cherry Orchard Point.
“Our private land acquisition initiative has proved to be an effective way of adding to the LDA’s land bank and our housing delivery pipeline. It is expected that further purchases will be completed if prices are right and we are continuing to examine and evaluate expressions of interest as we receive them.”