An Additional €12m Leveraged From Third Parties Through Initiative
Minister for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan, TD, today announced that 86 housing developments across the country will benefit from the €10m Special Resolution Fund announced in Budget 2014.
Announcing the funding while visiting the Fionn Uisce development in Galway City, Minister O’Sullivan said, “There has been substantial progress in tackling the issue of unfinished estates. Since 2010 the number of unfinished estates has reduced by more than 50%. In the recent Budget, with the support of Minister Brendan Howlin, I established a dedicated €10m fund to help resolve some of the most problematic estates.”
“86 estates across the country will benefit from this funding. In total €10m in public money will be invested. This public investment has also leveraged an additional €12m from third parties (developers/lenders/bonds) which will be invested in these estates.”
“This investment has many benefits. It will make an immediate improvement in the lives of families currently living on unfinished estates. We estimate that there are more than 2100 families living on the 86 estates earmarked for funding. They have had to endure many years of frustration and I am glad that this will now be brought to an end. The investment is also good for the wider local community. Unfinished estates are often an eyesore in an area and this investment will resolve some of the most problematic estates. In additional the additional spending is good news for jobs in the construction industry with a total capital investment this year of €22m in public and private funding.”
“Work on resolving unfinished estates is continuing apace. The vast majority of estates will be resolved without public funding. Developers and lenders, working in partnership with local authorities are working through resolution plans for estates. However, there are a minority of estates that need some public capital to kick start resolution and this €10m fund will achieve that goal.”
Ends.
For more information contact Paul Daly at 087-2235187
Notes for Editors:
The Autumn 2013 Housing Development Survey revealed there were 1258 unfinished developments remaining. 992 of these had residents in place. This is a 56% reduction in the number of unfinished housing developments since 2010.
The vast majority of unfinished developments are resolved without public funding.
The €10m special resolution fund is designed to kick start resolution on that minority of estates where the normal resolution process was unlikely to progress.
In assessing proposals from local authorities a number of criteria were used including:
Fund was focused on those estates with residents in situ
Proposed works had to result in the estate being removed from the Unfinished Housing Development list
Those estates in such a problematic condition that they qualified for a Local Property Tax waiver were given priority.
Proposals which were able to leverage additional third party finance were given priority.
€10m in public funding has been allocated for works on 86 estates. This has leveraged a further €12m in finance from third parties.
Of this €7m will come from developer/funder investment and €5m will come from bonds.
Details of county-by-county allocations are below:
Table: Approved Developments for Funding per Local Authority Area
LA No. of developments provisionally approved* Total Funding Provisionally approved* Funding Leveraged including 3rd Party & Bond amount available
Carlow 2 €393,840.00 €64,000.00
Cavan 6 €514,035.82 €148,054.37
Clare 2 €368,915.00 €754,372.00
Cork County 5 €401,422.00 €386,330.00
Donegal 8 €851,101.00 €640,328.00
Galway City 1 €250,000.00 €91,500.00
Galway County 3 €392,690.00 €1,925,779.00
Kerry 1 €52,210.00 €590,000.00
Kildare 1 €75,000.00 €82,168.00
Kilkenny 3 €410,000.00 €398,849.73
Laois 5 €367,259.95 €62,000.00
Leitrim 3 €526,897.50 €745,196.00
Limerick County 4 €254,749.28 €461,200.00
Longford 4 €844,072.00 €363,792.00
Louth 1 €165,000.00 €0.00
Mayo 4 €245,727.30 €193,214.00
Meath 2 €375,090.00 €1,643,161.00
Monaghan 4 €203,382.00 €220,000.00
Offaly 2 €320,480.00 €728,800.00
Roscommon 2 €485,921.00 €551,908.00
Sligo 6 €908,877.00 €1,355,290.27
Nrth Tipp 2 €247,500.00 €252,500.00
Tipp Sth 2 €366,656.51 €150,000.00
Waterford Co 1 €142,004.22 €142,004.22
Westmeath 2 €181,515.00 €30,154.62
Wexford 9 €483,135.00 €96,646.00
Wicklow 1 €43,000 €13,000.00
TOTALS 86 €9,870,480.58 €12,090,247.21