The debt funding deal means that so far this year Bank of Ireland has approved close to €500m in funding transactions aimed at supporting the development of an estimated 3,500 new homes across all provinces after substantially increasing the amount of funding it has earmarked for lending to housebuilders, the bank revealed.
The Dublin 15 development comprises 123 three and four-bed houses as well as a creche. Construction began in April 2024 with show-houses anticipated to be ready for a formal sales launch this weekend.
Driving housing supply is critical for the wellbeing of society and the future success of the country
Earlier this year the bank had increased the funding for housing development by 40pc to €2.5bn by 2026, including €1bn for social and affordable projects, according to Nicola Canavan, recently appointed head of housing and development finance at the bank.
“Driving housing supply is critical for the wellbeing of society and the future success of the country and we’re determined to play our part,” said Canavan.
“We’ve seen strong momentum so far this year… with circa €500m of transactions agreed across our corporate and business banking teams, with a good spread of projects in terms of private and social & affordable housing and their locations,” she said.
Following the decision to increase funding, Canavan said the bank was “very keen to support more ‘shovel-ready’ projects, big and small, to help us deliver on that ambition”.
€500m debt drawdowns so far this year will be staggered across 2025 and 2026.
“Looking out over the next six months I’m pleased to say the pipeline is looking healthy. In addition to making more debt funding available, we’ve also created a new Group-wide housing and construction finance team, to provide expert support to the property sector in every county – currently active on over 200 sites in 20 counties, and we’ve also backed a new fund designed to help address a lack of equity finance, something we know is holding many developers back.”
The bank said that drawdowns of the €500m of debt funding deals that it has agreed with developers so far this year will be staggered across 2025 and 2026.
Other active residential projects supported by Bank of Ireland in greater Dublin include 531 apartments in Ballyfermot being built by Dwyer Nolan Developments and 220 social and affordable homes in Mulhuddart being built by GEM Construction Ltd.
In March, AIB launched a €500m development fund with Activate Capital it said would build 1,000 homes a year at full tilt.