Hey all,
Seeing as housing is affecting us all to a paralysing degree, and how it doesn’t seem to be taking a turn for the better by any measure, I thought I’d share a small twitter thread outlining one aspect of the housing crisis that I don’t think we focus on enough. The fact that there are 40k units worth of planning already granted in Dublin City, with 70-80k granted nationwide, and yet there’s no push or pressure for developers to start commencing building.
In many cases, once permission is granted, they might go again to try to get planning for even more density, increasing the land value, and then flipping it/selling it on the open market at a high price. Such a high price that it’s normally unviable to build until rents rise by another x%.
I’d love to start a discussion if possible on either why you agree or disagree that this is a problem, or that objections etc are still a bottleneck in housing delivery.
For full Transparency, I’m in the “nimbys= red herring” camp, but I’m more than open to hearing why I might be wrong, as like so many, I want people in Ireland to be housed safely and securely without going into massive debt or poverty in doing so.
All the Best
Why the focus on objections? What seems to often go unmentioned: how many developments have actually received planning permission, but developers/funds are just sitting on the land? @harrymcgee @RadioBrendanRTE
— Gavin Sheridan (@gavinsblog) October 16, 2022
5 comments
Blaming “NIMBYs” is a simple narrative. People crave simplistic solutions for complex problems.
‘Nimby’ is a lazy go to that explains nothing = suits Harry McGee and RTE ‘journos’. The real issue is NAMA (and successor entities) if you dig deep enough – the government has its foot on the brake and the gas at the same time when it comes to land/housing.
Fair call. There’s a (relatively small) plot of land near me that had PP granted for apartments, a couple of months after PP is granted the land goes up for sale. Imo this is completely wrong, the State increase the value of the land by granting PP but whoever owns it benefits. PP should simply not be granted unless the applicant can demonstrate they are going to build imo, and if they don’t build in some time period (say 12 months) then the PP should be revoked.
We need to follow all avenues to increase supply.
Yup clongriffin in Dublin has planning permission for thousands of apartments but instead of building the developer sat on the sand, speculated and them sold it to another developer who also doesn’t seem to have any intention of building the apartments. It’s frustrating and the government needs to bring in a lose it or lose clause of these types of planning permissions
NIMBYism is one thing, but we as a nation allow anyone in the country object to any development. I discovered this at a young age when someone from 4 counties away successfully objected to a tv antenna being erected in a nearby village. The objector must have been delighted because he succeeded in “preserving the scenic beauty of the area” however the locals were pissed as they had crap reception.
Most other countries would consider this setup completely bizarre. There are a number of serial objectors out there that have held up multiple developments. In other countries their objections would have been thrown out.