Boherboy Road project first of its kind
“Photos of hard hats and shovels in the middle of a by-election won’t cut it.”
Those were the words of Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin on social media following the turning of the sod on an affordable housing scheme by Fine Gael in Cork city.
An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, An Tánaiste Simon Coveney and Eoghan Murphy, Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government were on Leeside over the weekend to turn the sod on a €40 million project on a 13 acre site at Boherboy Road, Lotamore in Mayfield.
It’s the first affordable purchase housing scheme in the country and a total of 153 homes are to be constructed at the Mayfield site immediately.
The site is being made available by Cork City Council and will see 116 energy efficient affordable homes for sale at affordable prices including 24 two-bedroom homes and 92 three-bedroom units as well as a crèche, ancillary site and landscaping works.
A portion of the site is also being made available to a housing association to build and manage 37 apartments for social tenure requirements. The price of the so called affordable, two-bedroom dwellings will start from €198,000 while the three-bedroom unit will start from €223,000.
Emmaville Limited, a joint venture between Clancy Construction and Lyonshall Limited, is the residential developer for the Boherboy Road scheme.
Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr John Sheehan said: “One of the many housing issues that needs addressing is to enable people to start their own homes and families locally, and near their communities. Homes were much easier to purchase in the past, and therefore, I am delighted to see this great initiative taken by the council and that these affordable homes, designed by leading Architects, O’ Mahony Pike and built by Lyonshall/Clancy Joint Venture, will shortly be available to eligible individuals and young families.”
This is the first Affordable Housing Purchase project in the State to be funded under the Serviced Sites Fund.
Cork City Council Director of Housing, Brian Geaney said: “The two critical ingredients here are the City Council supporting this scheme by assembling the lands and providing them at cost for the project and the Government providing a substantial Site Services Grant under its Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing.
“These homes are in addition to our wider housing delivery programme in Cork city which we have ramped up to a stage where we have more than 1,000 social and affordable homes under construction and more at various stages of planning.’’