10 April 2003: The cost of a house in Naas Town Council’s ‘affordable houses’ scheme on the Caragh Road has been put at E153,514.
And applicants will have to wait a month longer than planned for the keys to their new homes as the completion date has been put back until early June. Also, Phase One of the social housing units has been put back from June to October with the final phase ready in December. Officials blamed bad weather in 2001 for the loss of a number of weeks work on the site.
Officials are awaiting to hear from the Dept of the Environment following their appeal for a higher site subsidy which could further reduce the overall price.
Cllr Willie Callaghan had sought a full breakdown on all costs in relation to the Council’s affordable housing scheme. He said he was ‘dumbfounded’ at the price which is ‘no way near’ the price of an affordable house. He wanted it ‘drastically reduced’ so as to be affordable to applicants.
He compared the price against the cost of affordable houses in Longford at E100-E110,000; in Meath E103,110 and in Navan E124,000.
“A lot of people offered these houses are in a awkward situation because of the delays with leases in their present rented accommodation, and some will be left on the side of the road when their leases are up. We have let people down. It’s just dragging on,” he claimed.
Cllr Seamie Moore said their aim had been to bring people off the housing list and to encourage people to ‘go it alone’.
Cllr Mary Glennon pointed out the maximum loan under the shared ownership loan is E130,000 so purchasers will have to source another loan for the balance. This, she said, was putting people ‘in an impossible situation’.
Cllr Pat McCarthy believed the price was ‘through the roof’ and said the bulk of the cost was for construction costs. He wondered if the council had made an error when signing the contract two years ago.
According to Cllr Anthony Egan ‘taking the national wage into consideration, under no description are these affordable houses’.
Cllr Charlie Byrne said inflated prices by developers in the town ‘don’t help us’. In hindsight, he felt, they should have been able to state the price when inviting applications, as is done by developers and auctioneers.
Mayor Timmy Conway agreed the E153,514 is ‘off the wall’. “People now have to get two loans, and it’s just not on,” he said, adding that their objective had been ‘to keep the young people of Naas in Naas’. He said they must ensure that people allocated these houses, are looked after. “This is not affordable and not what we bought into in the first place,” he said.
The town clerk said the contract cost was as a result of a competitive tender. Some 8-9 tenders were received for the work and the tender accepted ‘was near the bottom’. He said he would continue to seek the highest level of subsidy possible.
Mr Kirrane added that to make a comparison between costs in other counties and Councils, they would want to ‘compare similar levels of construction’.
He said 90% of the work on the affordable houses is already done, however fitted kitchens and tiling and some finishing off work still remains to be done.
Figures revealed show the total cost for 51 houses to be £7.8m of which land costs are put at E310,000, architects/engineers fees etc at E849,037, construction costs at E6.3m. The balance is made up of advertising costs, site supervision, services and interest to the Housing Finance Agency.
