Dublin Housing Update: March 2019

The IT sector in Dublin and Ireland is booming. Surprisingly, the questions our IT recruitment consultants get asked most frequently are about Dublin housing. Neil Sullivan has an update from the people that have the inside information.

‘Where are we going to live? What is the transport like? Can I afford to buy a house in Dublin?’ These are questions asked by every single candidate that is considering relocating to Dublin. Stelfox Director, Neil Sullivan joined the Dublin Chamber Breakfast Briefing Friday morning to hear directly from John O’Hara, City Planner, Head of Land Use Policy, Dublin City Council, about what Dublin is doing to ensure we provide enough of the right homes for our growing population.

Recruiting in the IT sector is seeing an amazing boom with a growing workforce of 170,000 people and 18,000 technology jobs announced in 2018 alone. This does not take into consideration the large profile job announcements made in early 2019.  

Dublin Housing As It Stands.

By the numbers: We currently have a population in the greater Dublin region of 1.347 million people. We now have 80,000 students in Dublin which is an incredible 15% of the population. The general population is expected to increase by 260,000 by 2040. Do we have the space? Do we have the right infrastructure in place?

The simple answer is ‘yes’ we will. However, a number of dots need to be joined for us to execute the strategy. A very difficult task for John O’Hara to answer today to a packed audience of representatives from all industry sectors in Dublin. This is of obvious concern to the business in Dublin as it was the most-attended meeting of the Dublin Chamber Breakfast Briefing in recent memory.

This is a task John knows will always be controversial as you truly cannot please all members of society in a hotly debated topic like this. In saying that, progress is being made but to develop a plan of attack, you need to understand the problem first.

Why Do We Currently Have A Shortage Of Houses In Dublin?

In 2006, 7746 housing units were completed in the Dublin area and only 837 were completed in 2018. We need 4200 per year to keep up with the demand. There is no single party to blame but delays in permission to commence, capital, market attractiveness all quantified a slowdown.

In short, supply has not kept up with demand but now is the time to act.

What Is Being Done?

Here comes the good news! Thanks to many departments working together to execute a unified strategy, Dublin has the capacity to house 52,600 over the next few years. The estimated need is 29,500 in the same time period. There are 860 hectors of industrial land potentially allocated in the city as growth potential. The land must hit the following criteria:

1. Compact Connected City.
2. Employment & Innovation
3. Making Quality Neighbourhoods

We should, therefore, have enough availability to house not only those in need right now but the future students and professionals wanting to make the move to Ireland.

North Lotts, down near the Three Arena has been an amazing success for Dublin. We now need to use that as a blueprint and replicate with speed and accuracy.

The elephant in the room that was touched on at the beginning of the talk was about transport. There is a plan in place, and we are seeing big capital spend on things like the Metro, rail and bus. The key question still niggling many people I spoke to is how fast it can realistically be built and what are the short-term impact consequences for many members of society. Unfortunately, even the best plans are subject to change.

To find out more about how Stelfox can help you make your next move, career or otherwise, email Neil at neilsullivan@stelfox.com or call us directly on +353 (0)1 679 3182.  

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