Builders, Lioncor has lodged plans for a 666 unit residential scheme as part of an overall €710 million housing plan for the Co Wicklow town of Arklow.
The Kilbride large scale residential development (LRD) 666 unit application lodged for a 62 acre site to the north of Arklow with Wicklow County Council is the second phase of a scheme where Lioncor is planning to build a further 750 homes in Phase Three along with sports facilities at Kilbride, Arklow.
In total, Lioncor is planning to build 1,500 new homes with an estimated price tag of €710 million and already this year, Lioncor secured planning permission for 84 units in the southeast corner of the site.
This was the first phase in a multiphase development that also includes two new schools, a town centre along with playing fields and new cycle and pedestrian links to the town centre.
The lodging of 666 new home LRD plan by Lioncor subsidiary, Certain Assets of Dawnhill and Windhill Limited, follows An Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne officially opening the new €139 million Arklow Wastewater Treatment Plant last month.
The provision of a wastewater treatment plant for Arklow had been subject to planning and legal delays since the 1990s and the new plant is expected to facilitate Lioncor’s ambitious residential plans for the Co Wicklow town.
A planning report lodged with McGill Planning states that the 666-unit scheme “will deliver much needed housing within Arklow”.
Underlining the slow rate of housing delivery in Arklow in recent years, McGill Planning said that in the three years between the third quarter 2022 and April 2025 only 53 residential units have been commenced in the town.
McGill Planning said that the recent rate of residential unit construction “demonstrates that there is ample justification to permit the Kilbride LRD proposal for 666 units”.
McGilling Planning describedthe scheme as “an unparalleled new residential community in Arklow that will also deliver significant physical and social infrastructure for the town including a new boardwalk across the Arklow marsh and Avoca river”.
As part of the 666 scheme, Lioncor has put an indicative price tag of €31.2 million on selling 66 units to Wicklow County Council for social and affordable housing – which works out at an average cost of €473,558 per unit.
The 66 unit scheme is to be made up of 578 semidetached and terraced housing comprising 100 two-bedroom houses, 317 three-bed houses, 161 four-bedroom houses and 88 apartments and duplex apartments.
