Ireland
Ó Cualann Affordable Homes – Ó Cualann
Affordable Housing
Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance is a registered charity, which in conjunction with local authorities around Ireland has the mission to provide affordable housing to local resident groups who cannot afford the market prices, by offering homes effectively at cost. Through the funding model of OCualann, the homes delivered are at approximately 25 to 30 per cent discount compared to similar houses in the local market. OCualann specialises in building communities for these residents and many of their developments are used as benchmarks for community building projects throughout Ireland.
Sustainability Standards
The pool of buildings proposed for the project demonstration activities are homes constructed and operated under high sustainability standards. All buildings are located on the Eastern seaboard of Ireland, at the outskirts of Dublin. The candidate buildings proposed are mainly A-rated, meaning that their construction quality falls under the NZEB EPBD (Recast 2010) requirements, or planned to reach this rating through deep renovations. The foreseen renovations will include the retrofitting of windows, walls, installation of energy efficient heating boilers and Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP).
Strong Relationships
Overall, the pool of buildings proposed for the demo activities consists of 40 individual new homes, 5 recently renovated homes and 5 yet to be renovated homes. The building residents are members of integrated communities of mixed income, age, ability, mobility and ethnicity. The homes are predominantly owned by working families that in their majority count four or more family members, typically two parents and at least two children. The homes are 100% owned by the occupants and mortgages have been arranged with an Irish national bank through OCualann. Hence, OCualann has forged strong relationships with home owners, based on trust and cooperation and maintains contact with them for the five years following the purchase aligned with the contractually defined liability period. Additionally, OCualann helps identify the properties in need of renovation and manages the renovation process. Within CHRONICLE, OCualann will explore the benefits of the renovation support tools developed to support and improve the upcoming renovations at 5 of the Irish pilot homes and minimize the investment risk. In addition, CHRONICLE services will promote the performance optimisation of already renovated dwellings towards not only important energy savings but also reduction of costs for the social housing residents.
