Cork City Council defends spending €1m on two terrace houses

Cork City Council has defended spending over €1m on two terraced houses and almost €500,000 on renovating a southside house and adjoining granny flat as part of a ‘northside regeneration’ project.

The works were part of the Cork City Northwest Quarter Regeneration (CNWQR), a huge, multi-annual, phased regeneration project, which began in the Knocknaheeny and Hollyhill area more than a decade ago.

The CNWQR masterplan, adopted by the council in November 2011, involves the demolition of 450 houses on the northside and the design and construction of more than 600 new homes.

According to figures supplied by the Department of Housing to Cork North Central Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould, 14 projects are currently listed as proposed or completed under CNWQR, and four are described as complete.

Those projects cover 371 units and had an original projected spend of €109,600,564, but that amount has now been superseded by a current projected spend of €155,153,776, representing an increase of almost 42%.

Two terraced houses, on Foyle Ave and Ardmore Ave, completed in late 2023, were initially costed at €488,733, and are now projected to cost a total of €1,055,601, or €527,800 each, an increase on the original costing of 116%.

Projected spend 

A Cork City Council spokesperson said the original projected spend had been estimated in 2018 in line with Department of Housing guidelines and informed by the procurement environment at that time.

“The construction stage budget includes for costs associated with brownfield sites, existing topography, infrastructure, and public realm requirements and the specific housing needs of existing residents,” they said.

“It also reflects the procurement environment at that time, including covid-19 and hyperinflation.”

Included in the figures listed to Mr Gould as completed in the second quarter of 2023 is a property described as a single-unit development and listed as ‘Ard na Rí, Pouladfuf [sic]’. It was initially costed at €486,129 and is listed as finally costing precisely that amount.

Asked why a southside property was included on the listing of a northside regeneration project, the council spokesperson said: “Residents from the CNWQR are relocated on a case-by-case basis informed by their housing need.

“From time to time, residents are relocated to other areas of the city. Cork City Council does not comment on individual relocations.”

Acquired

Asked how a single-unit property could cost almost half a million euro, the spokesperson said it had been a derelict site acquired by Cork City Council, and the project cost included the price of the site.

“This project cost also included the refurbishment, extension and adaption of a three-bed detached derelict house… and a one-bed semi-detached single story universally designed unit.

“It can be seen from above that it is incorrect to state ‘a single-unit development cost almost half-a-million’,” they added.

Mr Gould said the longer delays were allowed to continue, the more costs would increase and suggested that Cork City Council should go back into building houses themselves and renovating houses, not privatising and sub-contracting jobs out.