COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, June 14, 2021

QUESTION NO. 3

QUESTION: Councillor Yvonne Collins

To ask the Chief Executive, in relation to units and/or properties in relation to which planning permission has been sought and granted as "build to sell", can a developer subsequently and unilaterally decide not to place these units on the open market but rather retain them and rent them out i.e. effectively changing the use from "build to sell" to "build to rent" and if so, what is the statutory basis for this please?

REPLY:

Context - Apartment Guidelines (2020) – Established policy framework for Build to Rent Tenure
The Design Standards for New Apartments – Guidelines for Planning Authorities (2020) includes a Section 5.0 Build-To-Rent and Shared Accommodation/Co-living Sectors Build-To-Rent Housing.
‘Build-to-Rent’ (or BTR) can be defined as: ‘Purpose-built residential accommodation and associated amenities built specifically for long-term rental that is managed and serviced in an institutional manner by an institutional landlord.’
The Guidelines promote BTR development through specific BTR planning and design policies and standards. Residential development may be proposed as a specific BTR development in the planning process at planning application stage and can avail of the specific standards set out in SPPR 8 of the Guidelines, namely:
(i) No restrictions on dwelling mix and all other requirements of these Guidelines shall apply, unless specified otherwise;
(ii) Flexibility shall apply in relation to the provision of a proportion of the storage and private amenity space associated with individual units as set out in Appendix 1 and in relation to the provision of all of the communal amenity space as set out in Appendix 1, on the basis of the provision of alternative, compensatory communal support facilities and amenities within the development. This shall be at the discretion of the planning authority. In all cases the obligation will be on the project proposer to demonstrate the overall quality of the facilities provided and that residents will enjoy an enhanced overall standard of amenity;
(iii) There shall be a default of minimal or significantly reduced car parking provision on the basis of BTR development being more suitable for central locations and/or proximity to public transport services. The requirement for a BTR scheme to have a strong central management regime is intended to contribute to the capacity to establish and operate shared mobility measures.
(iv) The requirement that the majority of all apartments in a proposed scheme exceed the minimum floor area standards by a minimum of 10% shall not apply to BTR schemes;
(v) The requirement for a maximum of 12 apartments per floor per core shall not apply to BTR schemes, subject to overall design quality and compliance with building regulations.

Under Specific Planning Policy Requirement (SPPR) 7, BTR development must be described in the public notices associated with a planning application specifically as a ‘Build-To-Rent’ housing development that unambiguously categorises the project (or part of thereof) as a long-term rental housing scheme, to be accompanied by a proposed covenant or legal agreement further to which appropriate planning conditions may be attached to any grant of permission to ensure that the development remains as such.

Summary 
The Planning Authority is generally only aware of the specific tenure of a proposal at planning application stage if the applicant avails of the different apartment standards available under SPPR 8 for the Apartment Guidelines and advertises the proposed development as a Build to Rent scheme as required by SPPR 7. Subject to specific individual planning conditions to control certain developments with different amenity/ design needs, such as student accommodation or retirement homes, there are generally no restrictions on a developer obtaining planning permission for an apartment/ residential scheme (not advertised as BTR) and subsequently renting them out.