Affordable housing scheme in County Waterford to go to tender immediately

Waterford City & County Council is to go to tender on a scheme of 28 social and affordable houses in Farrangarret, in Ardmore, within the next fortnight.

The news was welcomed by Senator John Cummins, who is the Fine Gael spokesperson on Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Commenting on the matter to Waterford News & Star, Senator Cummins said: “I have been working with Waterford City and County Council to progress this development over the past 12 months. While it was unfortunate that O’Cualann Housing Alliance were not in a position to proceed with this development due to the cost profile of the development, I was determined to ensure all was not lost on this critically important scheme for Ardmore and surrounding areas”.

Senator Cummins highlighted that having agreed to take over the scheme, Waterford City & County Council is “absolutely committed to delivering it”.

“They have been working very hard to reduce the risk and costs associated with the development,” he said.

“It is expected that they will use of a competitive dialogue process with the market, as opposed to a direct tender and build,” he added.

He said such a process was adopted by some local authorities in recent times to deliver a lower cost profile for developments and added that it was an approach that was ultimately “a positive for would-be purchasers”.

Last November, Waterford City and County Council launched an expression of interest portal for those interested in an affordable purchase option in Ardmore. The consultation ran for a period of six weeks and elicited a strong response.

Under the Affordable Purchase Scheme, a local authority can take an equity stake of up to 40 per cent, to cover the shortfall in the price, which can be redeemed at any stage in the future or may be left in place until a future sale of the property.

The scheme is mainly geared at first time buyers or those eligible for the fresh start principle.

First time Buyers are also eligible for the Help to Buy scheme which covers the 10 per cent deposit requirement, up to a maximum of €30,000, depending on the amount of tax paid in the previous four years.

“The strong level of expressions of interest which were received by the Council has given them the confidence to proceed to tender with this development,” said Senator Cummins.

“It will also be important in the submission that will ultimately be made to the Department of Housing when the pricing is finalised,” he added.

He concluded by saying: “When I got involved with this project over 12 months ago, it was clear to me that despite the stellar work that was done to progress the project through planning, that the proposal as it stood was unviable.” “There are significant constraints on the site, not least the gradient and the costs as presented were very challenging,” he said.

Senator Cummins went on to comment: “I would like to compliment the team at Waterford City and County Council who have worked to progress the project to this point, and I sincerely hope that the competitive dialogue process with the market yields a positive result”.