Galway needs to be building 3,000 housing units each year if it is to have sufficient numbers to meet population demands across the entire county. That was the target set out by industry and business experts who participated in a meeting on the housing issue organised by Galway Chamber.
Statistics detailed at the event showed that a total of 1,334 units were completed in 2022. This represents less than half of the level of building activity required in Galway, highlighting the significant increase in residential construction that will need to take place if sufficient units are to be provided for the growing population in Galway.
Some of the practical solutions voiced at the meeting to help enable the delivery of more housing in Galway included:
The need for more businesses and individuals to start voicing their support for the delivery of housing and infrastructure;
Creation of a short term roadmap for residential zoning across the city and county;
Developing a monitor which provides a real time, continually updated view on the level of public spending going into residential development locally;
Fast tracking of relevant public expenditure on housing;
Certainty around the delivery of necessary infrastructure such as utilities (eg. electricity and water );
A cut to the 23% VAT rate applied to housing;
Final clarity around the Galway Ring Road with housing and sites within the proposed route currently locked in stasis due to the uncertainty surrounding the project.
Among those who contributed to the event were John O’Malley, Director of O’Neill O’Malley Architecture and Project Management; Justin Molloy, Director with the Construction Industry Federation (CIF ); David Casserly, Managing Director of O’Malley Construction and Emer Joyce, Partner with L&J Tax. Rachael Stewart, Director of Stewart Construction provided the concluding remarks.
The event was also provided with an analysis on business attitudes around housing in Galway, with Galway Chamber CEO Kenny Deery speaking to research recently conducted by the Chamber on that topic.
Among the key findings of that research are four out of five local businesses say the lack of accommodation throughout the county is impacting their ability to hire – rising to 9 out of 10 for those companies in the tech sector. Additionally seven out of 10 Galway businesses recognise that the limited supply of housing is impacting their ability to retain staff.
Positive event
The meeting was organised by the Housing Committee of Galway Chamber, co-chaired by Rachael Stewart and Emer Joyce.
Speaking following the meeting, Kenny Deery CEO of Galway Chamber said this was a very positive event which took a clear-eyed looked at the practical issues surrounding housing delivery in Galway and where we need to get to.
"Given the shortfall in residential construction we have experienced locally in recent years, coupled with the growing population across Galway, we are now in a situation where we should be aiming for the delivery of 3,000 new housing units across the county each year.
"Unfortunately, until we start achieving activity at that scale the current accommodation constraints impacting the public and the business community in Galway are likely to remain.
“That is why it was helpful to see a range of practical solutions being voiced at the meeting. The most straightforward of these is perhaps just a mindset shift that needs to be adopted by those who want to see further housing delivered locally.
“We need to showcase our support for these projects and the potential benefits that can be derived both on a corporate and personal level. It would be very useful for the delivery of housing if more businesses and individuals would start acknowledging the importance of some of these projects and their strategic value to the development of the city and county. A lot of people recognise we need more housing in this county and we all have a role to play in enabling that to happen,” Mr Deery concluded.
