Circle – a voluntary housing association – is set to build more than 1,400 new homes over the next two years having secured a €51m AIB loan.

The house builder, who’ll be speaking at our Ireland Development Conference, are expected to build the homes across the Republic of Ireland in locations such as Greater Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Kildare and Galway. More than 250 of the properties each year will be for social housing. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

Circle said the nature of the agreed package, structured by financial advisors Centrus, allows the housing association to to re-use the borrowed funds at any time over the period of the loan, providing a safeguard for ongoing speedy development of social housing.

The unprecedented deal is “now the largest private financing package to any approved housing body in the country,” said a spokesperson for housing association Circle.

Circle’s Chief Executive John Hannigan – who’ll be speaking at the Ireland Development Conference, described the deal as an “historic agreement” which would deliver homes “in a matter of months” across several counties.

“This innovative public-private partnership approach is what is needed to solve the housing crisis and now with our 30-year agreement and our existing structures, we estimate we will be able to bring approximately 300 social houses to the market each year,” he said.

“What we have achieved is a modern approach to financing that has never been accomplished in this sector before. It is a sustainable model which will benefit thousands of families over the course of many years due to the revolving nature of the credit, allowing us to expand and provide additional homes on an ongoing basis.” [/emaillocker]