Approved Housing Bodies Respond and Tuath have said they are delighted to be announced as the winners of Social Housing Development of the Year Property at the National Property Awards 2022. The award is for ‘Woodside’, a development on the Enniskerry Road (Dublin) of purpose built cost rental and social housing homes, delivered in partnership by Respond and Tuath Housing.
The scheme includes Ireland’s first purpose built cost rental homes consisting of 155 homes (50 cost rental and 105 social housing). The development was delivered by Respond and Tuath in partnership with Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Housing Agency and the Housing Finance Agency.
The homes are a mix of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom properties. All of the 50 Cost Rental homes are 2-bedroom apartments. The Cost Rental apartments are let at a monthly rent of €1,200, a significant reduction when compared to market rents for 2-bedroom apartments in this location. The rent charged to tenants will cover the cost of delivering, managing and maintaining these homes and will not be driven by market movements.
The development offers its tenants a community facility along with lots of green spaces. The site is located near to a wide range of amenities, public facilities, schools, health services, local community and sports groups.
Niamh Randall, Spokesperson for Respond said: “Respond are delighted to have won this award with our partners in Tuath Housing. ‘Woodside’ on the Enniskerry Road is a unique collaboration between Respond and Tuath Housing, providing a new type of housing tenure in addition to social housing, private renting and private purchase. We are so pleased to have been able to welcome tenants to their new homes over the past few weeks and we hope they will be very happy living there. Our Housing team will be there to support them as they move into their new lifetime homes. This would not have been possible without the support and partnership of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, the Housing Agency and the Housing Finance Agency. We must also pay tribute to the excellent work of Duggan Brothers who were the contractors on site. We very much look forward to working with our partners to deliver further cost rental and social homes around the country to those who need them.”
Daragh O’Sullivan, Chairman of Tuath Housing commented; “We are thrilled to have won the award for best Social Housing Development of the Year, along with our partners Respond, for this ground-breaking development of Ireland’s first purpose-built cost rental scheme combined with 105 high quality social homes at Woodside , Enniskerry Rd. We were delighted to have worked closely on the delivery of these homes with Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, the Housing Agency, the Housing Finance Agency and the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage. Huge credit must also go to Duggan Brothers for delivering the highest standard of homes at Woodside. The rent paid by the new tenants will cover the cost of providing, managing and maintaining the homes for decades to come, and not a cent more. This flagship project offers the new tenants a much more affordable, long-term and secure form of rental tenure with the added benefit that their rent will not be driven by future price hikes in the private rental market. We look forward to supporting the new tenants at Woodside, engaging and creating a sustainable community. We are pleased to be working on another six cost rental schemes and we look forward to allocating 250 properties throughout 2022 and 2023”.
