Why can't we build the homes we need?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
More discussion today on the issue of housing affordability, with Housing Minister James Brown reportedly considering a EUT, for first-time buyers. It comes after the central bank says it now takes an average of four years to build a new home from planning application to completion, which is twice as long as it took a decade ago. So why are we unable to build the homes we need? And what will turn the
Why is housing affordability being framed as a viability problem in Ireland?
When it comes to boosting supply. In a moment I'll speak to Michael O'Flynn, Chairman and CEO of the O'Flynn Group. But first Tony Reddy is on the line. He's an architect and urbanist and former president of the RIAI. Tony, good morning to you.
Good morning, David.
Uh you were writing in the Irish Times recently uh on this topic and you said that while we we think we have a housing affordability problem in this country, what we actually have is a viability problem. What is our viability problem?
Well, uh the the reason I wrote the article is I'm really quite concerned uh about the housing crisis I h um as many in the industry are. Um and the Minister's recent uh interview with the Business Post on the subject where he said at a certain point uh the industry has to stand on its own two feet resonated with me. mean right now we we we're the government is putting approximately twelve billion into uh supporting particularly apartment development. And while uh I I approve of what he's done. We've got to recognise a situation may exist where the ability to do that may fall away. So one of the things I did and I debated this with colleagues in the custom house Uh and uh I practice in Britain. I talk to people in the Department of House the Ministry of Housing there.
The reality is that Britain and Ireland are outliers compared to the rest of the world. And indeed Ireland is a complete outlier. uh in that uh m planning the planning system does not take into account Viability. Uh so what we have is a situation where planners, um I I would call them policy planners, write they don't design, they write text and policy. in the isolation from the reality of the world outside.
Okay, so they might give certainly cut across to certainly cut across you, Tony. So they might give permission for an apartment block or housing development, but it might not be uh economically viable for a developer to build there. Is that your your issue?
Correct. What what they do is that in the development plan they set an aspiration for a particular density which generally now will require apartments. m I have no problem with apartment design in the right place. It's what m our practice mainly does. But the reality is that there's a sensitivity once you move out of the central or urban cores of our cities and towns and that's where what what what is known as low rise medium density, kind of middle middle density housing. It's higher density than the housing we used to know. Uh but it's lower density on apartments and it i it is actually owned over units. Uh it's a it's b i it's a a form of housing that has existed in Europe. R through time. really what happened with Ireland and Britain was that uh it it from the na Lloyd George's nineteen nineteen Homes for Heroes legislation, it effectively lowered the densities.
So There was a a view taken by planners in this country there was only two options, either that low density housing or high density problems. That's simply not true.
Okay, so t ik describe to me medium density housing, what does it look like? Do we have examples in this country already?
We we do have some small examples. The first thing I would say is it it's roughly a density of forty to eighty units per hectare. We have some very good examples in places like Adamstown, which is regarded as a European exemplar, and similarly more recently, Clumburus. the message the RAI, uh probably in Sweet Ireland, the Urb uh uh the Irish Cities Group, uh all of these bodies are saying we need to plan mm for the we need roughly twenty of these type of developments every year up to twenty forty. That's the sort of planning, forward planning that most of our European
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:25
2
Why is housing affordability being framed as a viability problem in Ireland?
0:25–5:20
3
What is medium‑density housing and how does it differ from high‑rise apartments?
5:20–10:01
4
How can European‑style planning teams improve Irish housing outcomes?
10:01–15:01
5
Why are current housing targets considered too low and how does that affect supply?
15:01–18:09