Developer puts €1m price tag on Dublin social housing apartment in planning bid
Gordon Deegan
A developer has put a €1 million price tag on a three-bedroom apartment in Dublin 6, which it is proposing to sell to Dublin City Council for social housing.
Ardstone subsidiary, Sandford Living Ltd, is making a renewed bid to secure planning permission for an €356m apartment scheme at the corner of Sandford Rd and Milltown Rd, Dublin 6.
As part of its Part V social housing requirements, Sandford Living is proposing to sell 56 of the planned 562 apartments to the City Council for social housing and has put a price tag of €1.03 million on the largest three-bedroom apartment.
A recent study by property firm Geowox found that Dublin 6 is the most expensive Eircode in the State, with the median price for a home rising to almost €800,000 in the third quarter of last year.
In total, Sandford Living has put a price tag of €35.54 million on the 56 apartments and the developers are seeking between €977,154 and €978,039 for three other three-bed apartments.
The lowest price amongst the designated 56 social housing units is €365,300 for a studio apartment.
The indicative prices for the two-bedroom units range from €690,917 to €820,217.
In all, the developers are planning sell five three-bed units, 27 two-bed units, 14 studios and 10 one-bed apartments. A final price will be reached between the developers and the council after planning permission has been secured.
It is Sandford Living Ltd’s third application for the site and planning consultants, Thornton O’Connor (TOC) state that the previous two applications have been subject to High Court judicial reviews.
The TOC planning report states that one 667-unit scheme from 2021 - mainly "build to rent" - has been remitted back by the High Court to An Coimúisin Pleanála for decision, while the High Court is to make a ruling concerning a separate judicial review of ACP granting planning permission in December 2023 for 636 units.
Advancing the case for the new scheme, TOC state the Large Scale Residential Development (LRD) has been reduced from 636 to 562 and a 10-storey apartment block has been reduced to eight storeys.
The report states that up until 2019, the existing buildings and lands at the application site were formally utilised by the Jesuit Community for institutional purposes.
The TOC report states that the property was vacated by the Jesuit order in 2019 and sold to the applicants the same year.
The report states that the site was purchased by the applicant with the intention of developing a high-quality development on a key accessible site in proximity to frequent public transport, employment locations, services and facilities in Dublin.
TOC state that the proposed development is appropriate, having regard to recent national policy, which requires the densification of sites in core urban locations such as the subject site.
Thornton O’Connor state that the scheme layout has been carefully considered, particularly having regard to the reuse of Tabor House and the Chapel within the development and the requirement to provide 25pc public open space.
The report states that in addition, the building heights have been carefully modulated throughout the site, providing appropriate setbacks from neighbouring properties.
TOC state that the proposed density of 140 units per hectare on the serviced land is not challenging, especially as the site can accommodate the proposed density because of the extensive quantum of public and communal open space provided throughout the site.
