Michael Stanley said he and his company have had extensive engagement with the coalition over the last couple of months, and he found it to be “especially open to robust conversations about what has been working in the past, and our view of what can increase output”.
He said the interaction has been “challenging” from the Government side too. “There was a very honest conversation about how Cairn and other large home builders could step up to the plate and deliver more.”
Speaking after the AGM of the country’s biggest house builder, Mr Stanley said he would expect the new Housing Minister, James Browne, and his team to research the sector, meet stakeholders and decide on their policies.
“I think we will probably see some results of that in the weeks ahead, on areas like planning. We expect to see some news pretty soon around what their thoughts are on how to free up more development land in the short term.”
Bullish about the prospects for the sector, Mr Stanley said that Cairn’s output grew by 30pc last year, and its target is to grow by another 10-15pc this year He predicts there will be an increase on last year’s total output, of 30,300 units, but it’s too early to say what the number might be.
The Cairn Homes chief added that if Ireland is to get to 50,000 units a year, “the answer that nobody wants to hear is that it has to include 25,000 apartments. We don’t have the land to build 50,000 houses every year. Our National Development Plan won’t allow it, our population, our demographics won’t allow it, or how land is designated for density.
“I have no doubt that Ireland will build 25,000 low-density homes a year, every year, and there will be demand for those. But we built through a lot of the low-hanging fruit over the last 10 years.”
Cairn Homes is not expecting to see any growth in its selling prices this year, and says cost inflation is running below the expected level of about 2pc. While it remains “mindful of the potential impact of changes in global trade policies, we are not witnessing any adverse effect on our business at present”, it added.
In relation to reports that Cairn has approached Clontarf golf club about doing a land swap so it can build housing on the 72-acre site, Mr Stanley said: “We haven’t done any deal with any golf club. It is our job to look at locations within our cities to see if they may represent appropriate land use for residential development, and we look at strategic sites all over the city and the country all the time.
“It doesn’t mean that particular opportunity is well progressed or is the only opportunity that we would be looking at. At any given point of time, we might be looking at dozens of various infill and other opportunities.”
The CEO pointed out that this is Cairn’s 10th year in business and the company is proud of having over 30,000 people live in one of its homes.
“As we embark on our second decade, our commitment to scale our delivery of high quality, energy efficient homes, in line with our core values, is stronger than ever,” Mr Stanley said.
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