Smaller apartments, with fewer features, to be allowed in attempt to tackle housing crisis
The measures,
reported in The Irish Times last month
, are to be brought to the Cabinet by Minister for Housing
James Browne
.
Mr Browne said the steps were among measures being introduced by him this summer to prompt a 'radical step-change' in the supply of housing.
A new housing plan, he said, would be presented by Government as soon as possible, though that is not expected until after the updated
National Development Plan
is agreed later this month. Government sources expect the housing plan will not be ready until autumn.
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The new rules for apartments will not affect standards for energy ratings, disability access and fire safety, but rather focus on design stipulations that the industry has said was adding cost to development.
It is expected that the minimum floor area for apartment sizes would be reduced and the requirements for design features such as dual aspects and balconies would be relaxed.
Developers say that the standards they are required to build to are the highest in Europe, making Irish apartments more expensive than anywhere else.
Government sources say that changing the standards will enable developers to build more apartments in individual developments, cutting the final cost and leading to cheaper prices for purchasers. They hope that the measures could cut the final cost of apartments by between €50,000 and €100,000 each.
The Government has repeatedly indicated that central to its housing strategy is an effort to attract more private investment into the market. Declining private investment has seen a slump in the number of apartments being built, especially in Dublin.
'We've been way too cautious and way too against getting the private sector involved,' Mr Browne told RTÉ One's The Week in Politics on Sunday.
But Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson
Eoin Ó Broin
condemned the latest plans to change apartment standards as 'utter madness' that would do nothing to address viability challenges.
He said the moves would push up the value of land and therefore developers' costs.
Large crowds gathered in Dublin city on Saturday as part of an
all-island housing demonstration urging the Government to act on the crisis
.
Led by the Community Action Tenants Union (CATU), and backed by more than 80 other trade unions and organisations, protesters marched through the city centre from the Garden of Remembrance towards Molesworth Street.
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