Turnkey acquisitions involve buying newly built and completely finished homes from developers, so-called because you simply need to \u2018turn the key\u2019 in the door of the home and occupy immediately.<\/p>\n
While the tweaks were rolled out to relatively little fanfare, they have set off alarm bells across large swathes of the Irish housing sector, with multiple builders and housing sources expressing disquiet to The Journal.<\/p>\n
The majority of these sources, across both private and state-backed sectors, believe the changes will cause at least a dip in housing completion numbers from 2028 onwards unless significant work is undertaken to resource alternatives to the current housing model.<\/p>\n
It would also further jeopardise the government\u2019s target of 60,000 homes per year, according to a number of those who spoke to The Journal.<\/p>\n
They were of the view the announcement \u201cleaves a lot up in the air\u201d, as they noted that private developers big and small are currently reliant on turnkey housing being agreed before they build.<\/p>\n
This is because these \u2018guaranteed sales\u2019 can secure financing from banks to proceed with a full development.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s causing uncertainty among a lot of the sector,\u201d one private developer warned.\n<\/p>\n
Approved Housing Bodies<\/p>\n
The Oireachtas Housing Committee heard this week from local council chief executives, who said they believed that one of the most impacted parts of Ireland\u2019s housing networks will be Approved Housing Bodies (AHB).<\/p>\n
These not-for-profit organisations work with private developers and councils to provide social and affordable housing, separate from the private market.<\/p>\n
As the government\u2019s changes will mean that the homes have to be developed at an earlier stage, housing sources believe it will cast doubt on plans for specific projects that be applied for after December next year.<\/p>\n
One builder explained: \u201cThe problem is a developer might have planning for a site over the next year and it might look ideal for an AHB.\u201d<\/p>\n
But developers may find themselves questioning \u201chow to do the site if you won\u2019t have the option of an AHB, as you\u2019ll have no outlet\u201d, meaning no homes may be built on specific sites as the industry transitions to the new system.<\/p>\n
The December 2027 deadline concerns applications for funding approval, rather than a requirement for all purchases to be completed by then.<\/p>\n
![\"river](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792913170_732_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
A number of developers also told The Journal that the change poses a difficulty for apartment building, which has been a focus of the government coalition since taking office.<\/p>\n
The private sector\u2019s longstanding complaint regarding apartments is that it finds them hard to make profitable and struggles to sell them on the open market when complete. This has meant that many builders rely on AHBs to sell the apartments to, as a way of completing the project.<\/p>\n
A number of AHBs declined to comment when contacted by The Journal.<\/p>\n
One AHB, Co-operative Housing Ireland, told us that they are waiting to see further information on the changes before providing any response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe share the minister\u2019s goal of increasing the supply of social and affordable homes and await the publication of full details on the recently announced approach,\u201d Co-operative Housing Ireland said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Already stretched\u2019 local councils<\/p>\n
Several sources, including developers, pointed to how significant investment would be needed in \u201calready stretched\u201d local councils, the Land Development Agency or AHBs to build up the internal teams required to deal with the new work they may be now expected to take on after next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey haven\u2019t got enough planners to manage the files in front of them never mind building thousands of homes,\u201d one developer said. \u201cThis just adds to uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n
But these sources noted that such a build-out of capacity may fly in the face of public expenditure minister Jack Chambers\u2019s stated aims to rein in state spending.<\/p>\n
Senior council officials who spoke to The Journal said it would mean more work for them, but were more positive about the changes.<\/p>\n
They noted that they would need to get involved at the design stage for new housing developments, but that this would mean they would have more input into the type of housing that could be provided, including for larger families and housing appropriate for disabled people.<\/p>\n
\u2018Misguided\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michelle Norris, professor of social policy at UCD, had backed the turnkey housing proposal when she was a member of the Housing Commission, but said on social media this week that the government was \u201cmisguided\u201d in how it planned to phase out the current system.<\/p>\n
She added that she believes social housing output will \u201cdecline significantly\u201d under the plan proposed.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of the large AHBs have any in-house capacity to manage large direct construction projects, this capacity is also severely limited in the local authority sector,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving to increase direct construction requires time to invest in increasing land banks and construction capacity in the social housing sector.\u00a0 Unless this is done, social housing output will decline significantly if turnkey acquisition is stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in housing spokesperson Eoin \u00d3 Br\u00f3in told The Journal that what the government is proposing needs a \u201cfive-year transition period\u201d, and risks \u201cupending\u201d the housing sector on the shorter timeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cSinn F\u00e9in is not, in principle, against the government announcement,\u201d \u00d3 Br\u00f3in added, \u201cHowever, if government makes a mess of this it could actually result in fewer social and private homes being delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE ROLLOUT OF new homes may slow or even plunge into reverse as a result of a change…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[281361,280806,10635,41614,42,807,3662,7116,43,13289,11259,40,38,41,39,281362],"class_list":["post-664711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ahbs","tag-approved-housing-bodies","tag-builders","tag-developers","tag-headlines","tag-housing","tag-housing-crisis","tag-james-browne","tag-news","tag-social-housing","tag-the-morning-lead","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-turnkey-housing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}