Dublin City Council is building this one itself. An Droichead Orga puts 578 homes on the cleared former St Michael’s Estate off Emmet Road in Inchicore, 441 of them cost rental and 137 social. The council signed the main construction contract with Elliott Building & Civil Engineering on 24 November 2025, and the Lord Mayor and the Minister for Housing marked the start of construction on 22 April 2026.
Project Scope
The unit mix is 110 studios, 172 one-beds including 17 duplexes, 250 two-beds and 46 three-beds. Bucholz McEvoy Architects were appointed as the integrated design team in May 2020, and planning permission came in July 2023, five years after the project was first announced. Hegarty Demolition started enabling works in April 2025, taking down the HSE building and the community centre while the sports centre is retained, diverting services and carrying out minor works to a historic wall on the north-west boundary. Elliott’s first contract covers the first tranche of homes, a creche and a new library and community hub; retail, a supermarket and a cafe are a separate contract. Completion of the Elliott contract is scheduled for the first quarter of 2028. Homes are designed to NZEB standard and target Home Performance Index certification and EU Taxonomy compliance. The scheme includes courtyard communal space, play and activity areas and public realm linking to the Camac River and the Grand Canal. Elliott’s chief executive has said modern methods of construction will be used to compress the programme.
Why It Matters
The council is using a direct-build model rather than handing the land to a developer, which is why the financing is visible: a EUR 66.15 million government grant alongside a 40-year Housing Finance Agency loan of EUR 132.5 million that the council has sought. Cost-rental apartments here are estimated at up to EUR 450,500 each to build, a number worth sitting with given what cost rental is supposed to deliver. The site is a designated Strategic Development and Regeneration Area under the Dublin City Development Plan 2022 to 2028. Two data points don’t reconcile in the council’s own published material: the first contract is described as covering 478 homes on one page and 487 on another, and no single headline project value has been released.
Project Team & Details
| Developer | Dublin City Council |
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| Owner / Client | Dublin City Council |
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| Architect | Bucholz McEvoy Architects |
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| General Contractor | Elliott Building & Civil Engineering Ltd. |
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| Major Subcontractors | Hegarty Demolition Limited (Demolition and Enabling Works) |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Delivery Method | Design-Bid-Build |
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| Funding Source | Public (Municipal) |
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