1,200 Dublin homes funded by specialist lender
State-backed Activate Capital aims to boost offering to developers
Activate Capital, which provides funding for residential development, says it has now committed funding for sites in the Greater Dublin Area with the capacity to build 1,200 homes.
Activate Capital is a joint venture between the State-backed Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) and the global investment firm KKR. In a statement, it said the sites comprised a combination of zoned and planned locations with a mix of starter and larger family homes. The first houses are expected to come on the market next month.
Activate also announced changes in its funding, aimed at making it more attractive to a broader range of developers and house builders. The fund had beencriticised by some in the construction sector earlier this year, with Construction Industry Federation chief Tom Parlon saying its terms "may be unworkable for our members".
“A significant inhibitor of progress has been the inability of house builders to access sufficient capital to progress their plans," said Activate's chief executive Robert Gallagher.
"Our capital partners ISIF and KKR have agreed to amend their facilities so that we can offer competitively priced loans across the development risk spectrum," he said.
Gallagher said a greateravailability and affordability of capital for house builders would lead to a pick-up in development activity in Dublin and other urban locations in 2017.
Activate has also added to its executive team recently, with Dan Murphy joining from AIB, Emmet O’Reilly from Argentum Homes and Ciaran O’Toole from Ulster Bank. Activate has also appointed Stewart Harrington as a non-executive director.
