A new programme has been launched in County Limerick, giving small builders and developers the opportunity to kickstart developments across the region.

The Turnkey programme will be available to these small companies who have sites with full planning permission that have yet to be activated. Currently some 3,500 units have planning permissions but only 11% have been developed.

Limerick City and County Council will sign contracts for the purchase of new homes, with the price including a 'builder's profit'. With the contract guaranteeing the viability of the project, Turnkey schemes will enable small builders and developers to secure finance, potentially triggering the development of a large number of sites across the city and county that are otherwise in a logjam.

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Launching the project, Deputy Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Cllr Adam Teskey said: "Housing is one of the great issues we face in Ireland today. In Limerick, we have 2,432 applications on our housing list and we are looking at a number of ways of fast-tracking the delivery of homes and the Turnkey campaign we are launching today is just one of them.

"We have one of the country's most progressive local authorities here in Limerick and this is further evidence of that. The Turnkey campaign is an innovative solution to housing delivery. We conservatively estimate, even with modest take up from small builders or developers, we will see up to 1,000 additional new homes come on stream in the coming years.

"Together with the local authority's ongoing 'build, buy and lease' programmes, the local authority's vacant properties programme in our towns and villages and the Part 5 requirement on all developments to have a minimum 10% social housing mix, we are making very significant inroads in terms of housing delivery in Limerick."

(CM)