Council Land Runs Short After 2026: Dublin Turns to Church Sites to Keep 15,000 Homes Coming

• Dublin City Council planned a land-buying programme that would target church and institutional sites
• The council had more than 15,000 social, affordable and cost-rental homes in the pipeline
• Its own land was expected to run out after about three years
• The archdiocese had sought rezoning for more than 30 church sites

Dublin City Council planned to start buying church-owned and institutional land to keep its housing programme going, the Irish Times reported at the end of 2022. The council said it would launch the programme within six months.

Chief executive Owen Keegan explained the reason. “We have a huge programme of over 15,000 social, affordable and cost-rental units… It is clear, however, if we are to maintain housing output beyond 2026, we are going to have to start acquiring land,” he said. Existing council land was expected to last only about three more years.

The programme would focus on sites not yet zoned for housing, where the council expected better value. The Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin had already sought rezoning for more than 30 church sites, and Keegan indicated that the council would consider acquiring some of them. The archdiocese said two parishes were exploring housing potential, but the projects were at an early stage.

The council had already shown what church land could deliver: after the Church of the Annunciation in Finglas was demolished in 2020, more than 100 social homes were approved on the site.

The Dublin plan puts in plain terms what housing officials across the region are realising: churches own well-located land, and cities are running short. In Jamaica, where churches hold land in almost every town, the same conversation is beginning. For church boards, zoning status is key, because land zoned for community use is worth less than housing land. For buyers and investors, church sites are often in established neighbourhoods with services already in place.

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