1,500 new homes could be delivered in Cork over the next three years as Initiative Ireland has announced its new sustainable finance partnership for the construction of residential homes with Fairfield Real Estate Finance.

The company will significantly increase the scale of its lending activity by €600m — enabling small, medium, and large-scale developers to deliver 5,000 new homes nationwide over the next three years.

It’s expected this would support over 3,000 construction jobs nationally and create 20 new finance jobs in the process.

Initiative Ireland is an Irish-owned financial services company and social enterprise, supported by Enterprise Ireland, which is focused on delivering societal and environmental impact through finance and investments.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said: “I welcome news of increased funding competition within the Irish finance market, to support the delivery of social and affordable housing, in addition to the creation of new jobs.

“It is also great to see Enterprise Ireland-backed companies such as Initiative Ireland, successfully attracting and building partnerships with globally recognised firms, delivering and supporting new jobs here in Ireland as we work to stabilise the jobs and housing market.”

To date, Initiative Ireland has supported over €50m of new social and affordable housing nationwide. Under the new venture, its community lending programme will be maintained, while also targeting a further €600m in lending over the next three years for the new partnership programme.

Cork housing proposals: A further 440 residential units planned for Cork https://t.co/Zd4SKQSdLp

— EchoLive.ie (@echolivecork) May 14, 2021

Sinead Byrne, COO, Initiative Ireland said, “As a sustainable finance company, we are focused on supporting projects that reflect the underlying need for housing.

“We are especially focused on private housing offered at affordable or mid-market prices or social housing, because we understand the market. We also understand the challenges faced by those developers and we’re committed to working with them to overcome obstacles and deliver energy-efficient housing for everyday people across Ireland.”

In August 2020 the company announced a new partnership with the Credit Union Development Association (CUDA), which will enable Irish Credit Unions to provide funding to Approved Housing Bodies across Ireland.

Between the CUDA partnership and the partnership just announced, Initiative Ireland is now positioned to deliver over €1.5bn of funding to the market over the next five years.