Housing

LDA property boss: Landowners sitting on sites that can’t be developed at affordable prices

The Land Development Agency’s head of property warned that several sites across the country had planning permission that was pitched at the upper end of the rental market

Phelim O’Neill Head of Property, with the Land Development Agency who is based in the Portershed in Galway City. Photo: Andrew Downes, Xposure

Many private landowners are sitting on “overpriced” sites with “unimplementable” planning permissions, the head of the state’s Land Development Agency has said.

Last year, the agency which was established in 2018 to expedite the construction of affordable homes on state lands, launched a new initiative focused on acquiring sites from the private market to boost its pipeline.

Phelim O’Neill, the head of property at the LDA, said the agency had discovered through its move into ...