Tails wag at housing launch
The Brookhill estate of 69 affordable family homes was launched in Carrigaline this week.
An Taoiseach Micheal Martin launched Co-operative Housing Ireland's (CHI), a development of A rated homes which was achieved through a partnership with Cork County Council, the Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and Homeland Group.
Each household in the Brookhill estate will be a member of the local housing co-operative. Members have a say in the running of the co-operative, the management of estates, hosting community events and can elect representatives onto the national board of CHI.
Speaking about his move into the Brookhill estate, new resident Ross O'Keefe said: "I'd easily spend an hour discussing how amazing our new home is. It's as though our dreams have finally come true.
"The fact that the houses in this estate are so fantastic is the icing on the cake for us. Our new home couldn't have come to us at a better time. Having a home offers us a sense of stability which we haven't had in a long time, especially in the run up to Christmas."
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 was a landmark year for CHI, with the organisation on target to deliver over 400 homes.
Speaking at the launch, An Taoiseach said: "The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted more than ever the importance of working together. It is not an either or in the delivery of housing we need to use all available resources which means local authorities and approved housing bodies, like Co-operative Housing Ireland, building homes directly as well as providing turnkey projects."
CHI CEO Kieron Brennan said: "This is a good news story, 69 family homes in time for Christmas. CHI homes are unique, we foster co-operative principles in building communities. The importance of community has come into sharp focus during the Covid-19 pandemic and the necessity for affordability and security of tenure.
"This is a turnkey estate meaning that we engaged with a developer, agreed a fix price and stuck to it. As well as direct builds, turnkey homes are essential to addressing the housing crisis, they allow for the risks associated with building to be pushed back onto the developer, for a greater housing tenure mix, for social housing to be built on private land, and for accelerated house building."
Padraic Clancy, CHI's Head of New Business, said: "When all costs associated with building homes such as land, levies, acquisition costs, stamp duty, VAT, and services including water, sewage, gas, electricity are added up turnkey offers value for money."