Young people of Ireland might decide to vote next time.
Why dont ye go and picket Bartra offices or representatives
Look at how much property both residential and commercial that they own. Bought up on the side while families don’t get a look in. Tax breaks and subsidies, the power to dictate government policy, access to the minister of housing
OP can you post the article it’s behind a paywall?
A ban preventing the sale of more than 524 homes being developed on public lands to institutional funds has been lifted by An Bord Pleanála.
In September 2021, a prominent ruling by An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for 1,047 homes on the former O’Devaney Gardens site near Phoenix Park in Dublin, but banned the sale of the units to a “corporate entity”.
A deal is already in place for Dublin City Council to acquire 20 per cent of the homes for social housing from property developers Bartra, while a further 30 per cent will be sold as affordable purchase housing.
The original An Bord Pleanála decision included a clause that prevented the bulk sale of the remaining 524 units to a single “corporate entity”. It meant Bartra would be obliged to sell the remaining homes to either individual purchasers or to the state for social housing.
The contentious ruling prompted Bartra Capital to lodge a judicial review with the High Court in a bid to get the clause removed from the planning decision. Bartra claimed the viability of the project would be affected by the ban.
The court case is still live, but a modified decision on the development has now been published by An Bord Pleanála, which has clarified that the 524 apartments being developed on the O’Devaney Gardens can now be sold to an institutional investor.
A spokesman for An Bord Pleanála said the revised ruling was published because the previous decision needed to be “corrected”. He said following correspondence from Bartra Capital, An Bord Pleanála decided to make the correction because it came to the attention of the board that in order for the development to go ahead the board’s decision needed to be amended and it has now been clarified that the ban preventing the sale of homes to a corporate entity does not apply to the 524 apartments.
As first reported by the Irish Sun, Bartra Capital wrote to Darragh O’Brien, the Minister for Housing, in February 2021 to warn him that the 524 homes would be sold to an institutional fund if the state didn’t commit to acquire them all.
The company told O’Brien that in order to commence construction on social and affordable housing units on the site, they needed a commitment from the state that it would acquire all 524 of the other homes.
The developer said it has engaged with estate agent Hooke & McDonald to help them sell the units to a private buyer if the state didn’t buy the units. The first planning ruling by An Bord Pleanála banned such a sale, but the revised decision has now reversed this.
Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson, said An Bord Pleanála’s new decision has now significantly strengthened Bartra’s hand in negotiations with the state over the purchase of these 524 apartments.
Ó Broin said Bartra now “has the government over a barrel”. He added that they can “threaten to sell these apartments to an institutional investor who will rent them out at extortionate prices”.
“Or Bartra can force the government to use enormous sums of taxpayers’ money to acquire these units. Either way, aspiring homeowners and the taxpayer are screwed and Bartra are laughing all the way to the bank.”
A spokesman for Bartra said it could not comment on the matter because the judicial review case over O’Devaney Gardens is still active.
>”Bartra claimed the viability of the project would be affected by the ban.”
My fucking ass. People are crying out for homes and would gladly pay.
Having read the article I’m at a bit of a loss as to why ABP ‘corrected’ the restriction on sale – because it seems to be what nobody wants in any political party.
Can anybody explain it without the easy “brown envelopes” accusations? Because I can’t.
The people selling this country off underneath our noses have names and addresses, remember that, they’re not some faceless entity.
Of course Bartra objected the decision to make more of the homes affordable, it would limit the profit they can extort from a housing scheme on public land. The government has no backbone in this, it’s so afraid of life without corporate management charging us to rent that it will sell its own city centre land at the expense of the most in need of housing to keep them happy.
Honestly can someone explain why they feel so at the mercy of these investment funds? Is it that they don’t know about alternative models of creating affordable housing or that they don’t care about housing being affordable in the first place?
National protest needed to take this government out of office. Why should we have to put up with this nonsense
Cool, Bartra capital was founded by Richard Barrett. Wasn’t that the guy who owned Treasury Holdings with Johnny Ronan? During the boom they were known as Jesse James and Billy the Kid. After the crash they had an estimated 3 billion in debt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUHunfH0XbI
I don’t think we learned anything from the last crash.
The Irish Govt supports housing for landlords, developers and speculators but not for people.
cue: ‘one man’s rent is another mans income’ arguments and hand wringing about supply.
Fuck off ireland
An Bord Pleanála should not have the power to sell our country from under us.
Irish folks probably need to start getting together and forming housing co-ops to create developments to have greater combined buying power. This is not a glib dismissal of the housing as investment thing by the way, just one way people might have a chance against the system.
That’s really bad, especially in the wake of so many Ukrainian refugees coming to Ireland to seek shelter. I hope local groups find ways to stop them being sold to funds and they can be given to people.
Personally think the funds were a good thing to drive recent housing development.
Our banking system refuses to invest and as a result many developers are forced to agree deals with institutional investors.
Everyone who rightly predicted this would happen was being called a NIMBY, anti-home ownership etc by the usual centre right commentators and councillors. All the FF and FG “any supply is good supply” grifters are awfully quiet now.
Squatting is a legitimate form of protest against this. Squat the fucking things and put homeless people in them.
Every single housing estate sold off to a fund like this should be the target of a protest movement aimed at permanently squatting them.
We need to protest every entity involved in this, to be honest. ABP, Bartra, Dublin City Council and the Oireachtas. I’m thinking we should organise a protest march which passes all off their HQs nrfore finishing at the Dáil for a gigantic rally.
We’ve been talking about having hige housing protests for a few years now, this issue right here should be the catalyst IMO.
Country and youths future is being sold from under us by this government for short term profit.
The most heartbreaking thing is Irish people will just shake their heads and do absolutely nothing about it
I am not educated enough on the government’s housing policy or on law in general for that matter, but why can’t they introduce legislation to stop this happening again and again.
Was there a party who objected to this development on the basis the land was being given to the developer for free with no guarantees, and their objection was just as a bat to beat them with as being a contributor to the housing crisis?
Genuinely can’t remember too clearly but remember something happening around this development
If the developer was so concerned that the 524 homes wouldn’t be sold in the end, could they not have simply not commenced construction until enough of the homes had been sold off plans? It’s blatantly obvious now that the developer is intending to hand these over to one single buyer rather than sell one by one. Awful shame as over 500 homes in that location for buyers would be a huge win for the gov in terms of optics.
This is exactly why the opposition objected to these developments.
The apologists on hear never shut up about this. Where are they today?
This is the same ‘pull on the green jersey’ shite that was peddled post 2008.
This ruling means that developers and funds now have carte blanche mechanism on building now even on state owned land.
r/Dublin is full again ?
In fairness to DCC and the Govt, this is Bartra and ABP being cunts.
27 comments
Great news.
Young people of Ireland might decide to vote next time.
Why dont ye go and picket Bartra offices or representatives
Look at how much property both residential and commercial that they own. Bought up on the side while families don’t get a look in. Tax breaks and subsidies, the power to dictate government policy, access to the minister of housing
https://bartra.ie/developments/
OP can you post the article it’s behind a paywall?
A ban preventing the sale of more than 524 homes being developed on public lands to institutional funds has been lifted by An Bord Pleanála.
In September 2021, a prominent ruling by An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for 1,047 homes on the former O’Devaney Gardens site near Phoenix Park in Dublin, but banned the sale of the units to a “corporate entity”.
A deal is already in place for Dublin City Council to acquire 20 per cent of the homes for social housing from property developers Bartra, while a further 30 per cent will be sold as affordable purchase housing.
The original An Bord Pleanála decision included a clause that prevented the bulk sale of the remaining 524 units to a single “corporate entity”. It meant Bartra would be obliged to sell the remaining homes to either individual purchasers or to the state for social housing.
The contentious ruling prompted Bartra Capital to lodge a judicial review with the High Court in a bid to get the clause removed from the planning decision. Bartra claimed the viability of the project would be affected by the ban.
The court case is still live, but a modified decision on the development has now been published by An Bord Pleanála, which has clarified that the 524 apartments being developed on the O’Devaney Gardens can now be sold to an institutional investor.
A spokesman for An Bord Pleanála said the revised ruling was published because the previous decision needed to be “corrected”. He said following correspondence from Bartra Capital, An Bord Pleanála decided to make the correction because it came to the attention of the board that in order for the development to go ahead the board’s decision needed to be amended and it has now been clarified that the ban preventing the sale of homes to a corporate entity does not apply to the 524 apartments.
As first reported by the Irish Sun, Bartra Capital wrote to Darragh O’Brien, the Minister for Housing, in February 2021 to warn him that the 524 homes would be sold to an institutional fund if the state didn’t commit to acquire them all.
The company told O’Brien that in order to commence construction on social and affordable housing units on the site, they needed a commitment from the state that it would acquire all 524 of the other homes.
The developer said it has engaged with estate agent Hooke & McDonald to help them sell the units to a private buyer if the state didn’t buy the units. The first planning ruling by An Bord Pleanála banned such a sale, but the revised decision has now reversed this.
Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson, said An Bord Pleanála’s new decision has now significantly strengthened Bartra’s hand in negotiations with the state over the purchase of these 524 apartments.
Ó Broin said Bartra now “has the government over a barrel”. He added that they can “threaten to sell these apartments to an institutional investor who will rent them out at extortionate prices”.
“Or Bartra can force the government to use enormous sums of taxpayers’ money to acquire these units. Either way, aspiring homeowners and the taxpayer are screwed and Bartra are laughing all the way to the bank.”
A spokesman for Bartra said it could not comment on the matter because the judicial review case over O’Devaney Gardens is still active.
>”Bartra claimed the viability of the project would be affected by the ban.”
My fucking ass. People are crying out for homes and would gladly pay.
Having read the article I’m at a bit of a loss as to why ABP ‘corrected’ the restriction on sale – because it seems to be what nobody wants in any political party.
Can anybody explain it without the easy “brown envelopes” accusations? Because I can’t.
The people selling this country off underneath our noses have names and addresses, remember that, they’re not some faceless entity.
Of course Bartra objected the decision to make more of the homes affordable, it would limit the profit they can extort from a housing scheme on public land. The government has no backbone in this, it’s so afraid of life without corporate management charging us to rent that it will sell its own city centre land at the expense of the most in need of housing to keep them happy.
Honestly can someone explain why they feel so at the mercy of these investment funds? Is it that they don’t know about alternative models of creating affordable housing or that they don’t care about housing being affordable in the first place?
National protest needed to take this government out of office. Why should we have to put up with this nonsense
Cool, Bartra capital was founded by Richard Barrett. Wasn’t that the guy who owned Treasury Holdings with Johnny Ronan? During the boom they were known as Jesse James and Billy the Kid. After the crash they had an estimated 3 billion in debt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUHunfH0XbI
I don’t think we learned anything from the last crash.
https://youtu.be/kxe4v7AclxM
Mary lou and Micheal Martin discuss in the Dail
We need to adopt a french attitude to this
The Irish Govt supports housing for landlords, developers and speculators but not for people.
cue: ‘one man’s rent is another mans income’ arguments and hand wringing about supply.
Fuck off ireland
An Bord Pleanála should not have the power to sell our country from under us.
Irish folks probably need to start getting together and forming housing co-ops to create developments to have greater combined buying power. This is not a glib dismissal of the housing as investment thing by the way, just one way people might have a chance against the system.
[https://cooperativehousing.ie/](https://cooperativehousing.ie/)
That’s really bad, especially in the wake of so many Ukrainian refugees coming to Ireland to seek shelter. I hope local groups find ways to stop them being sold to funds and they can be given to people.
Personally think the funds were a good thing to drive recent housing development.
Our banking system refuses to invest and as a result many developers are forced to agree deals with institutional investors.
Everyone who rightly predicted this would happen was being called a NIMBY, anti-home ownership etc by the usual centre right commentators and councillors. All the FF and FG “any supply is good supply” grifters are awfully quiet now.
Squatting is a legitimate form of protest against this. Squat the fucking things and put homeless people in them.
Every single housing estate sold off to a fund like this should be the target of a protest movement aimed at permanently squatting them.
We need to protest every entity involved in this, to be honest. ABP, Bartra, Dublin City Council and the Oireachtas. I’m thinking we should organise a protest march which passes all off their HQs nrfore finishing at the Dáil for a gigantic rally.
We’ve been talking about having hige housing protests for a few years now, this issue right here should be the catalyst IMO.
Country and youths future is being sold from under us by this government for short term profit.
The most heartbreaking thing is Irish people will just shake their heads and do absolutely nothing about it
I am not educated enough on the government’s housing policy or on law in general for that matter, but why can’t they introduce legislation to stop this happening again and again.
Was there a party who objected to this development on the basis the land was being given to the developer for free with no guarantees, and their objection was just as a bat to beat them with as being a contributor to the housing crisis?
Genuinely can’t remember too clearly but remember something happening around this development
If the developer was so concerned that the 524 homes wouldn’t be sold in the end, could they not have simply not commenced construction until enough of the homes had been sold off plans? It’s blatantly obvious now that the developer is intending to hand these over to one single buyer rather than sell one by one. Awful shame as over 500 homes in that location for buyers would be a huge win for the gov in terms of optics.
This is exactly why the opposition objected to these developments.
The apologists on hear never shut up about this. Where are they today?
This is the same ‘pull on the green jersey’ shite that was peddled post 2008.
This ruling means that developers and funds now have carte blanche mechanism on building now even on state owned land.
r/Dublin is full again ?
In fairness to DCC and the Govt, this is Bartra and ABP being cunts.