{"id":41378,"date":"2025-09-03T18:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T18:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/41378\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T18:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T18:13:13","slug":"state-must-build-25000-apartments-annually-to-hit-housing-targets-says-cairn-homes-chief-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/41378\/","title":{"rendered":"State must build 25,000 apartments annually to hit housing targets, says Cairn Homes chief \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The State will have to build 25,000 apartments a year to meet its housing targets, Cairn Homes chief executive Michael Stanley has said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIf we want to get from 30,000 to 60,000 homes, most of the increase is going to have to come from apartments because we simply don\u2019t have the land available to build low density housing,\u201d Mr Stanley said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He was speaking after Cairn Homes published its latest interim results showing after-tax profits fell by almost a third to \u20ac31.7 million in the first six months of the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The homebuilder, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in June, saw revenue fell by 22 per cent to \u20ac284.5 million but Mr Stanley said the first half of the year was always slower for completions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On the broader issue of housing, he said 88 per cent of the available residentially zoned land has a relatively high density specification.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWhat that means is that you cannot design a scheme that does not have a significant portion or all apartments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWhy is that important? There is only one route to the Government hitting their housing targets [apartments],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Stanley noted that there were up to 35,000 apartment units with planning in the system that were not viable without private capital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He commended Government measures such as the Cro\u00ed C\u00f3naithe scheme, which funds apartment building, changes to apartment design standards and changes to rent pressure zones, which he said were designed \u201cto crowd in private capital\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Cairn said its latest results equated to a basic earnings per share of 5.1 cent, which was down from 7.2 cent in the same period last year, while insisting its trading performance was in line with expectations. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The average selling price of its closed units, excluding VAT, was \u20ac387,000. The decrease of just \u20ac1,000 reflected the ongoing delivery of competitively priced new homes to first-time buyers and State partner markets, the group said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Cairn said demand across all buyer profiles remained \u201cexceptionally strong\u201d over the period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Cairn started 2025 with a multiyear forward order book of 2,361 new homes with a net sales value of about \u20ac910 million, which has increased to 4,092 new homes with a net sales value of \u20ac1.54 billion as of September 2nd.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The company said a competitive mortgage market, impactful State supports for first time buyers, and strong personal savings are driving positive momentum in its core first time buyer market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The group launched eight new schemes over the period across Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Cork and Galway, with strong demand witnessed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Cairn upgraded its guidance for the full year 2025 on the back of \u201cexceptionally strong\u201d sales momentum, together with the success of its scaled procurement and innovation strategy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It now expects to generate revenue of \u20ac945 million, as well as operating profit of up to \u20ac165 million, up from a previous estimate of \u20ac160 million.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image audio_image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754647931518-c07d65db-55b5-463e-ae51-976300c5837e.jpeg\"\/>Why are some independent Irish breweries turning off their taps and closing?<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cOur continued investment in scaling is building a stronger business that will enable us to continue to grow our annual volumes and profitability,\u201d it said. The company added that it remains confident about its future growth prospects. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It guided that it expects to generate revenues of more than \u20ac1 billion in 2026, as well as an operating profit of between \u20ac175 million and \u20ac180 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Stanley said the company has a market cap of \u20ac1.35 billion, with more than 30,000 people now living in a Cairn home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI am also very pleased to report that the business is performing strongly, our strategy is working, and we have doubled down on investment in our construction activities,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAs this unwinds, it will lead to a strong second half which is why we are raising our guidance today for 2025 and also introducing new guidance as a result of increased housing output for 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIn keeping build cost inflation under control, maintaining average sales price consistency, and placing a strong emphasis on energy efficiency, a well-designed Cairn home represents an attractive proposition for first-time buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He added that the delivery of cost-effective new homes for the group\u2019s State partners, in mainly scaled apartment developments, is playing a \u201ccritical role\u201d in addressing the housing crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State will have to build 25,000 apartments a year to meet its housing targets, Cairn Homes chief&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,16080,18,8752,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-41378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cairn-homes","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-housing-crisis","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}