A Letterkenny councillor is calling for more to be done to support property developers and address the poor performance of housebuilding in Letterkenny.
Independent Cllr Michael McBride has urged the council to look at the issues that are turning builders off from developing in the area.
A recent meeting of Donegal County Council reviewing the County Development Plan figures showed that only 317 houses have been built from 2018 to 2021 versus a planned capacity for up to 1000 to 1200 homes in the plan.
Cllr McBride said the pattern cannot continue into the future. He told the Letterkenny-Milford MD that the Letterkenny Plan does not take stakeholders into consideration and that “for some reason, the climate is wrong” for building in the town.
“There are five sites in Donegal town that are either active or they are finishing building houses in and coming back to Letterkenny again the first thing you notice is the lack of houses being built,” Cllr McBride said.
“There never ever was a bigger demand for housing that we have at the moment.”
Cllr McBride suggested that the local authority should survey developers for feedback on issues and hold workshops on the matter.
He said that, from his own conversations with builders, that paperwork, timeframes and administration were among the problems affecting the sector in Letterkenny.
In response, the council agreed that a Municipal District workshop to examine the range of factors that may influence housebuilding activity would be of benefit as they further progress the Letterkenny Plan.
