RESEARCH ON THE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY

Description

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is procuring, from a single tenderer, a set of linked papers focused on the evidenced production of new knowledge concerning the residential development industry in Ireland, focusing on developing a profile of developer characteristics and a better understanding of operational practices within the industry. The linked papers will traverse the following research topics: - A profile of the Irish housing development industry, primarily focused on 2014 to date, describing observed activity, changing trends, and describing the heterogeneity of the industry in terms of capacity, funding, land banks, degree of involvement with the production of social and affordable housing and its impact, and other important aspects; - The relationship between initial pre-land transaction estimates of gross development value and how eventual sales prices are set; - The relationship between predicted sales prices, sales rates, market capacity and construction rates; - How developers interact with local authority-led statutory planning processes with a view to shaping local planning policy; - Developer use of land options or conditional contracts which are conditional on the outcome of statutory processes, and the relationship between zoning processes and land bank assembly; - How developers react to changes in input prices, including financing costs, prior to construction, and changes to demand once construction has begun; and, - How developers consider macroeconomic risks within their operational decision-making.