Digital Desk Staff
Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien is set to ban co-living developments due to concerns over the large volumes of plans for the controversial housing facilities.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has previously expressed concerns that planned co-living developments could become "glorified tenement living”.
Mr O'Brien has told officials of his reservations about the number of planned co-living developments and their potential to undermine Government housing policies, according to The Irish Times.
Mr O'Brien is also concerned that they would upward pressure on land prices.
His decision was made after reviewing guidelines for co-living issued in 2018 by the previous Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy of Fine Gael.
In an email seen by The Irish Times, Mr O'Brien told officials that he would amend the 2018 guidelines to “seek to restrict all future commercial co-living development in Ireland”.
Co-living guidelines
The guidelines were widely criticised at the time, including by Mr O'Brien who was Fianna Fáil's housing spokesperson.
The guidelines allowed for bedrooms of 12sq m — smaller than a car-parking space for disabled people — although most were drawn up to be larger in existing plans.
Mr O’Brien wrote: “Given the unprecedented nature of these developments I have concerns that the scale of the developments is moving away from the niche quantity of units the concept originally aimed for to a significantly larger role in the housing system.”
Mr O'Brien added that the location for proposed co-living developments was “not in keeping with the high-density urban centres originally envisaged”.
He also warned that these developments could have a “negative impact” on the Government's goal to deliver 50,000 social homes and build on home ownership and cost rental models.
There have been 14 co-living applications so far, with five approved and two refused.
