Clúid Housing plan to spend almost €1bn on housing over four years

Gordon Deegan

Approved housing body Clúid Housing is planning to spend almost €1 billion on major new housing schemes over four years.

New tender related documentation issued on Monday show that Clúid Housing is seeking to spend €950 million on new housing over the four year lifetime of a multi-framework agreement with builders engaged in constructing new housing schemes nationwide valued at €50 million or more.

The documentation states that the estimated €950 million value “is not a guaranteed spend”.

Since its establishment in 1994, Clúid has provided over 14,000 properties to low-income families and single people, older people, people with a disability and traveller families across Ireland.

The Project Information Memorandum states that Clúid “want to partner with suitably qualified contractors to design and build large scale residential units nationwide with a focus on Green and Lean construction methodologies.”

It states that Clúid “will acquire suitable sites for mixed tenure residential development in areas where there is strong demand and support from the Local Authority”.

It further states that the development sites may be purchased by Clúid, purchased by the contractor, transferred to Clúid by a Local Authority/State Agency or acquired by other appropriate means.

On the funding options for the schemes under the €950 million spend, the memorandum states that “Clúid are proposing to fund these projects by way of debt finance”.

The memorandum states that “it is anticipated that contracts arising under each Framework Agreement will be part funded by an element of public funding, for example Capital Assistance Leasing Fund (CALF)”.

The Construction Partner Frameworks are intended to extend for a period of 4 years, with the possibility of contracts extending beyond that timeframe.

The memorandum states that projects arising under the Framework Agreements will be subject to budget availability and operational requirements - feasibility studies will be undertaken to determine the number and anticipated cost of developments and their commercial viability.

On the anticipated pipeline of the projects, the memorandum states that due to timings and other operational reasons the anticipated pipeline for the Framework is not available at this stage.

It states that Clúid are continuously partnering with Local Authorities, the Land Development Agency, the Housing Agency, semi-state bodies, religious orders, and charities to deliver high-quality residential developments.

As part of the tender process, Clúid is inviting firms to engage with a pre-qualification stage. The top six firms will then be invited to tender and the top four firms selected at tender stage will then be part of the framework.

The memorandum states that it is envisaged that there will be a regular biannual review with an annual progress report for each project arising from the Framework Agreement.

In a show of its financial firepower, it was confirmed in January of last year that Clúid purchased a 328-unit residential development at Airton, Tallaght for €159.7 million in the approved body’s biggest cost rental scheme to date.

The most recent annual report for Cluid shows that the book value of its tangible assets increased from €2.26 billion to €2.86 billion in 2024.

As of December 31st 2024, Clúid Housing had 12,836 homes in management across 31 local authority areas.

A spokeswoman for Clúid Housing said that Clúid delivered 1,391 new social and affordable rental homes in 2025, at a total cost of €513 million.

She said: “In 2026, we expect to deliver 1,164 homes at a projected cost of €461 million. We expect to deliver in excess of 2,000 homes over four years as part of our Construction Programme Framework, in addition to our other delivery mechanisms such as our sector-leading Developer Design and Build programme and our forward purchase acquisitions.”

“This Framework Agreement is another example of Clúid’s ambitious drive to achieve our vision of a society where everyone has a great place to live," she said.

“In addition to increasing our construction programme and delivering high-quality homes for those in housing need, the Framework Agreement will incorporate lessons learned from our Innovative Partnership in areas such as early contractor engagement to promote lean construction methodologies and reduce embodied carbon.”