Case Studies   Urban Regeneration in the City of Dublin: Partnership structures and integrated area planning

Housing tenure

The dominant model of housing tenure in Ireland is private home ownership. More than 80 per cent of the population own their own homes. As a consequence, social housing has become a somewhat residualised sector within the housing marketplace. Kilmainham-Inchicore and Liberties-Coombe have a mixed housing profile consisting of infill private apartments, social housing blocks, traditional owner-occupied row housing, and some housing association stock. There is a higher proportion of local authority tenants in the North East inner-city, which is home to ten per cent of Dublin City Council’s tenant population. In addition, the housing stock in the North East Inner City is predominantly flats (50. 9 per cent) while the remainder is senior citizen accommodation and houses, (Profile of Households Accommodated by Dublin City Council, 2002).

Kilmainham/Inchicore housing area covers much of the south western region of Dublin City. The local authority housing in the area consists of houses, duplexes, masionettes, flats and senior citizen accommodation. Dublin City Council started to build houses in the area in the 1930s. One of the most important improvement projects underway in the area at present is the demolition of St. Michael’s estate and its replacement with a mixture of apartments, duplexes and conventional housing. 5.4 per cent of the total Dublin City Council population live in the Kilmainham-Inchicore housing area. The 1,374 Dublin City Council properties in the area, constiute 5.7 per cent of the Council’s total housing stock. Houses make up about half of the housing stock, with the remainder consisting of senior citizen accommodation and flats. More than half of these households (56. 6 per cent) are headed by a woman, while 22 per cent of households are headed by a single adult with dependent children. About 20 per cent of tenants are in receipt of unemployment payments, (Profile of Households Accommodated by Dublin City Council, 2002).

Kilmainham- Inchicore: a brief history    Urban Decline