Housing association has a budget of up to £9m for new development sites in Derry

A housing association is looking to spend up to £9m on securing new development sites in Derry.

There have long been concerns about the number of people waiting on social housing accommodation in the local area.

However, housing associations have also regularly highlighted the difficulty they have in securing development sites in the city.

Now, Habinteg Housing Association, one of the largest housing associations in Northern Ireland, has launched a new search for land in Derry.

Habinteg, which manages 2,300 properties throughout the North, has issued separate tenders looking for land in both the Waterside and cityside areas.

Each of the land tenders has an estimated value of £4.5m.

Habinteg says that all its properties in Derry are currently let.

Through the new tender process, the association says it is looking for sites that could provide enough space for anything between 10 and 100 houses.

“Habinteg Housing Association is actively seeking opportunities to address the social housing need in the Derry area,” a spokesperson for the association told the Derry News.

“Habinteg  currently has almost 2,300 homes located across Northern Ireland and is committed to seeking out and delivering high quality housing solutions to those who need it most.”

Habinteg will take on ownership of a new apartment complex which is currently being built at Duke Street in Derry.

The complex will provide a total of 42 apartments when complete.

Habinteg also currently own a large number of properties in various parts of Derry, including at Hazelbank, Creggan and at Brigade and the Top of the Hill in the Waterside area.

It was reported last year that there were around 4,500 people on the social housing waiting list in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area.

Around 2,000 of these were single people, while older people make up around 13% of the waiting list.

By March 2020, the construction of around 800 new social houses was underway in the council area in a bid to tackle the huge waiting list.