Call for Leitrim to keep turnkey homes in social housing mix
At a recent meeting of Leitrim County Council, Cllr Paddy O’Rourke said councils should retain the option of buying completed homes where they offer better value than building from scratch.
A call has been made for local authorities to retain the option of purchasing houses when they are available at good value, rather than being restricted to building new homes themselves.
Cllr Paddy O’Rourke raised concerns about an announcement by Minister for Housing James Browne TD that local authorities will stop purchasing turnkey homes for social housing by December 31, 2027.
In a motion, Cllr O’Rourke called on the Minister to reconsider the decision.
“The purchase of such properties has served this authority well in that it allowed us to buy houses at well below the cost of building them, while at the same time finishing out unfinished estates,” his motion stated. “While that circumstance may never present again in such numbers, there can be opportunities to obtain value to add to our housing needs.”
Cllr O’Rourke told the meeting that any opportunity to acquire houses for people on the housing list should not be closed off.
“Turnkey has served us very well,” he said. “We know houses that are purchased well below what it would cost to build from the ground up.”
“I’d hate to think that we’d be excluded from participating in that market,” he continued.
He said he had received some reassurance that the council might still be able to work directly with developers.
Under this approach, developers could build houses specifically to meet the council’s needs in particular locations, rather than the council having to purchase whatever properties happened to be available on the market.
His motion was seconded by Cllr Pádraig Fallon, among others.
Cllr Fallon said that while there may previously have been too much reliance on turnkey properties, that did not mean the option should be abandoned.
He also pointed out that small and medium-sized building companies in Leitrim could help deliver more homes if they had access to sufficient finance.
He suggested the Minister could help increase housing supply by making funding available to these smaller builders.