Vision 2030 and beyond 

The first 60 years of the estate from a human perspective (a simple analysis)

• New build properties puchased by house holders

• House holds grow in some cases, children arrive and house hold numbers increase 

• Some house holders make infrastructure changes to housing units to accomadate changes in house hold size etc

• Children grow up, go to college, get a job and move away

• House hold numbers decrease over time 

• Some house holders, down size, sell on or stay in their existing houses

• Eventually houses are either sold or house pass to the children of the original house holders

• The cycle then starts again and will last another 50 or 60 years and then start again 

Note: A simple review of the census data over the years backs up the points above 

Vision 2030 and beyond for the area and the approx 600 houses

Upgraded housing stock within the estate that achieve low energy ratings, lower running costs for residents, benefit the overall community & help to achieve climate reduction goals

Why even try to define a 2030 vision for the 600 houses within the area  or residents association area 

• Over 450 houses in the area are nearly 60 years old since they were built

• The vast majority of the original houses in the estate still have an open fireplace and the associated chimey stack. This type of solution within the house fabric is going to become less desirable and decrease the overall value of your property due to carbon related ruduction measures and current building regulations that discorage the installation of these types of solutions in newer build properties

• Even well maintaned houses require upgrades at some point in there lifetime e.g electrical wiring and plumbing 

• How can residents future proof their properties for the next 50 years, increase there property desirability and increase capital value in line with newly developed properties that are of similar size, cheaper to run and cheaper to finance

• In my opinion unless a property owner of a 60 year old house makes some decisions to sell there property at current market value or make a capital investment to upgrade and enhance there property they will get to a tipping point where there  property will start to decrease in value compared to newer build homes of similar size and location (however the desirability of properties in the estate and there value is primarily based on location and plot size), however, I believe we will get to a point were these factors will start to change and start to decrease the desirability and value of the overall housing stock within the estate. 

Mortgage cost and running cost versus capital investment cost, payback period & increase in housing stock value for an E1 rated property with a 30 year mortgage moving to B2 (a very simple analysis with information that is used as basic assumptions and would need to be fully qualified by any person applying this analysis to their own situation)

High level scenario 

• E1 rated home 1960's 

• Running costs per year 5k

• 30 year mortgage on €750k loan 

• Capital investment to get to B2 150K

Results of achieving B2 BER 

• 150K capital investment (less 40K grants)

• Mortgage restructuring adds1110K to 30 year mortgage 

• Mortgage rate reduces by 0.1 to 0.3 percent (green mortgage)

• Running costs reduce by 3k per year 

• Increase in property value 10 to 15 percent 

• The ability to legally rent your home from 2030 onwards

Note: this is an example and any person looking at the data needs to carry out their calculations and cost benefit analysis

How and why to embark on this journey for the residents of the estate 

• Increase the value of existing individual housing stock within estate (current total housing stock in the area of 600 house would be worth over 500  million 

• Leverage community buying power to achieve lower retrofit costs

• Leverage community grants, county council grants, SEAI grants etc

• Leverage lower funding rates for whole community and identify free funding oppurtunties for older house holders 

• Lower running costs and energy usage 

• Increase value of individual housing units 

• Prepare the housing stock within the estate for the next 50 years of usage and occupation 

Issues with a substantial amount of the current housing stock within the estate 

• 1960's housing stock will need to be upgraded sooner or later for wiring and pipework etc 

• High overall running costs due to low levels if insulation and inefficient heating systems etc 

• Low BER ratings, average E1, thus high C02 emissions etc 

• Low levels of insulation

• Electrical and plumbing components within houses getting to end of life 

A set of solutions that could be implemented for individual housing units & the overall estate 

• Community heating solution & investigate heating as a service (which would be a new initiative in Ireland)

• Ugrade from gas or oil to air source heat pumps 

• Individual solar & battery storage solutions

• Community solar & battery storage solution with any excess being sold back to grid 

• Utilise Solar as a service in certain cases 

• Community high speed charging units for electric vehicles 

• Various retrofit options for residential housing units tailored for each householder utilising all relevant grants available 

How could this type of vision be achieved 

• Engage with SEAI & DLRCC

• Identify all related community and individual grant options 

• Implement a set of mechanisms to review the requirements for each housing unit and the cost benefit analysis 

• Identify  and cost a diverse set of solutions using best of breed components that would suit infividual householders requirements 

• Identify an implementation partners that could facilitate a large scale project 

What changes should you make to a house to lower costs first (what is the biggest bang for the buck)

• Insulation within the house building fabric (walls, floors, roof & ceiling gaps) and heat loss (windows, doors etc)

after insulation and heat loss upgrades, you should look into the other types of solutions that will help to lower running costs and carbon emissions 

• Obtain a BER assessment, find and talk to people in the estate that have made changes to there houses and get their opinions on what changes worked best for them

• Heating controls i.e seperating the heating radiator circuit from the hot water tank circuit 

• Upgrade your radiators to the latest efficient models (low cost if you do not need to re pipe. The houses within our estate were installed with gun barrell pipes which will need to be relaced at some stage in the future as the are now in some peoples opinions end of life)

• More efficient heating system, look at a move from oil or gas to air source heat pump or similar (However a heat pump can end up costing more to run than gas or oil if your house is not well insulated or your heat pump is over sized for the overall house heat requirements)

• Solar panel for power / hot water and battery  storage solutions, which can reduce costs but are limited to roof space, house orientation 

• Low energy usage appliances, lightbulbs etc 

What are the differences in the cost of a deep retrofit of a 1960's property vs a property built in 1995 (a simple example)

• Implementing the same deep retrofit solutions and obtaining the same grant funding for two properties. Property one built in the 1960's and property two built n the 1990's, the difference in the overall deep retrofit costs to achieve a BER B2 for the both properties could  easily reach an overall differential of over 100k, thus why are the owners of older properties provided with higher levels of grant funding that closes the gap between the capital cost of the deep rwtrofit of the older propert vs the newer property but achieves the overall aim of the climate action programme to move all related housing  stock to a BER rating of B2 or below and does not penalyze the owners of older housing stock compared to the owners of newer housing stock

A simple conclusion that the upgradng of older housing stock to a BER rating of B2 or less may cost more from a capital perspective but would reduce overall C02 emissions and reach overall climate action goals faster than upgrading newer housing stock at a lower capital cost but achieving the same overall C02 emissions for newer housing stock that can achieve a BER B2 rating or below as the overall starting point for older housing units would be less energy efficient compared to newer housing units 

• Thus higher levels of C02 emission recuction can be achieved through the upgrading of older less efficient properties compared to the upgrading of more efficient newer properties

How do the owners of older housing stock advocate for an increase in grant funding based on housing stock age and decrease the inequality that is in built into the current grant funding regime

• Leveraging community representation, harnessing the support of councillors, challenging the current grant mechanisms and lobbying the relevant goverment entities, TD's, Ministers and Govermental department areas etc

The basic fabric of the 325 house built by park developments

• External block concrete wall with no insulation

• Internal non load bearing internal concrete walls on the ground and first floor

• Raised ground floor with no insulation (floor board on top of rafters)

• First floor with no insulation (plasterboard on underside of rafters and floor board on top of rafters)

• First floor ceiling minimal insulation between rafters and plasterborad below rafters 

• Single glazed windows 

• Boiler and electrical distribution in garage, hot water tank / imerssion in airing cupboard and cold water tank in attick 

• Electrical distribution board, power sockets for rooms and kitchen on seperate breakers, lighting circuits and and switches on seperate circuits 

• Radiator, hot water cylinder and cold watet tank all gun barrell back to boiler and all on one single circuit

Is it possible for a home owner in our estate with a house with an E1 BER rating to get to a B2 BER rating and do this themselves or with a little help from friends and family etc 

• I believe the answer is yes, however there are issues that need to overcome and you need a few builder friends if possible 

• You have to have a plan 

• You have to engage with SEAI 

• You need to educate yourself and learn certain things, e.g performance of components and housing fabric

• How BER and DEAP works 

• Living in a partial building site, however changes can be made room by room etc 

What would I do myself with support of friends and family 

• Dry line internal walls (grant of up to 4.5k)

• Insulate the attick (grant of up to 2k)

• Insulate ground floor (grant of up to 3.5k available), as the floor is up replace any old pipe work and electrical cabling 

• Heating controls (grant up to €700)

• New windows 0.8 to 1.2 u value depending on how much you have to spend (grant up to 4k)

• 2 x new doors (grant up to €1.6k)

• Solar panels (grant up to €1.8k)

• BER assesment (grant up to 350 euros)

• Replace all light bulbs with low power LED (benefit automate your home on the cheap)

• Identify and replace any old appliances that use a lot of electricty 

• Replace all your radiators to the most efficient K22 models, sized corrdctly to heat the rooms etc 

• Service your boiler 

Note: New flooring and painting / decorating is not factored in and would be an additional cost approx 5 to 10k 

Grant funding for above, Capital cost, Running cost reduction & would you get to a B2 BER

• Capital around 40 to 50k (a very rough estimate) depending how good you at finding deals, you would be amazed what can be found at the right price if you look hard enough 

• Grants €18150

• Running cost reduction (depending on understanding existing running costs) and mortgage funding reduction (green mortgage rate and depending on existing mortgage costs) can easily be in the range of 4k - 7k or sbove (depending on various variables etc etc) 

• Overall investment approx 21 to 31k after grant funding 

• A payback period in a lot of cases under 5 years

• Capital investment is offset in some cases by running cost reductions and funding cost  reductions 

•  Ater the payback period you are saving money ever year moving forward 

• Increased overall property value of a house with a B2 BER rating

Note: This is a very rough analysis and lots of people may say this cannot be done, certain people in the building world would be horrified, but in my opinion this type of change can be achieved, the downside is that the home owner has to put in a lot of hard work and fully harness the power of friends and family etc

How owners of older housing stock face much higher costs related to deepretrofit solutions and the current SEAI grant structure

• The National Residential Retrofit plan 2026 is defined below

https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/658e9beb/Nat-Retrofit-Res-Plan-2026.pdf

• The SEAI current grant structure does not fully take into account the difference and cost implications of executing the same grant upgrade on a house built in 1960 compared to a house built 1995, the difference can be considerable and in most cases executing the same upgrade will cost more to complete on the older property

• Changes need to be made in the current grant structures to make the cost of upgrading older and less energy efficent homes cheaper to achieve for the home owner ?

There are many different solutions that are available but in my opinion, insulation is the number one solution that should be considered

Home owners of housing stock with a BER rating of E1 and between D2 & B2 and rental requlation changes from 2026 to 2030

• There are a lot of regulatory changes related to the renting of properties and associated BER ratings 

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2025-11-20/49/

https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/housing-for-all-a-new-housing-plan-for-ireland.pdf

• So to be able to rent out a property you need to be at a BER D2 by end of 2026 and a BER B2 by 2030, thus a substantial amount of housing units in our area could not be rented out legally as they are BER E1. Now ask the question how will this affect the value of your house in the future 

Real world data related to current running costs and reduction in running costs achieved through energy upgrades to help other householders to make informed decisions

• Of the 600 housing units within the estate there are approximatly 6 or 7 different designs, thus it is quite easy to calculate overall energy usage and costs for similar housing stock that has not changed since being built or has had some minor upgrades along the way e.g all E1 BER rated units in the estate 

• There are also a number of housing units that have recieved various types of upgrades that have increased there energy efficiency, running costs and improved there BER ratings, thus if some householders were will to provide certain types of data relatedvto the energy upgrades, costs, reductions in energy usage, increased BER rating and uplift in property price or lower funding costs .i.e green mortgage rates. This type of informaton would provide a valuable dataset to allow other householders in the same type of housing unit to make more informed decions based on capital cost, return on investment and any uplift in house value could be achieved

Note: If I had 1 million euros to buy a house in the area that I have lived all my life, would I buy a 1960's house with an E1 rating that costs €850K & 150K to upgrade to BER B2 or would I take my 1 million and buy a house with an A+ rating for the full 1 million ?

I know which choice that should be made and why the area requires a residents association and some people to make vision 2030 a workable type of solution for the area and the house holders in the area. Unless we move forwards we will move back...

 Above are only  a set of thoughts and my personal opinions and would need to be fully investigated to verify if any of the points above would be achievable and beneficial to the overall residents within the estate.