Plans underway to turn industrial estates in Dublin into housing developments

Ireland is currently experiencing a widespread housing crisis.

With private rental prices rising and a lack of social housing developments, for many families it feels like they will never find permanent homes. There have been many protests and marches over the last year asking for the government to step up and offer real solutions. In recent days there have been talks that industrial estates could potentially become housing developments, but will it happen? Over the years many ideas on how to solve the housing shortage have been batted around but still not enough homes have been built to meet the current demand. If this latest project comes to fruition it would seriously ease the housing shortage in Dublin and could then be taken to other parts of the country. Dublin City Council plan to redevelop up to two-thirds of Dublin city’s industrial estates and business parks and replace them with housing developments. According to the Irish Times Dublin City Council’s head of housing, Brendan Kenny, said last year that the city would “run out” of residentially zoned development land in four years and must turn its attention to industrial estates as a source of new housing land. Some of the industrial estates of interest to the council include Jamestown Business Park, Finglas Business Centre, Malahide Road Industrial Park and Newtown Industrial Estate. There is currently no set date for these plans to proceed and in the meantime many struggling families are left with very limited options.