It's now taking developers five years from acquiring sites to bringing homes onto the market.
That's according to Waterford TD Matt Shanahan who has addressed the issue of affordable housing in the Dail.
Deputy Shanahan has claimed that Ireland's accommodation crisis is not being helped by government policy.
He outlined the case of one particular developer that he has learned of recently.
" We have a significant issue with planning appeals and observations. I was with a private developer recently who has three separate sites in the South-East, all of which are being held up by planning observations. He told me it is taking, on average, five years from the acquisition of land to selling the houses on site. That is not marketable either. I was in Limerick recently where I met a large development company. Its biggest problem is finance. It could double its output within 12 months but it cannot get lines of finance to support its business. We basically have two banks which are lending to builders but only if they come along with 30%, 40%, or 50% of the equity to try to drive a project. We need a functioning finance agency to support private housing because it is delivering most Part 5 housing other than local authority schemes."
"The bureaucracy involved in building a house is nuts, both for private developers and local authorities. Private developers are frustrated at this stage and many who have been a long time in the business are scaling back and building a small amount of housing because it is too difficult and they are fed up with it."
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