Barr an Aird Coolcotts

A total of 57 families have been celebrating and busily unloading boxes as they collected the keys of their new state of the art houses at Barr An Aird in Coolcotts on Thursday, with a final ten properties to be allocated in the coming days.

Constructed by Drinagh based company Bawn Developments, the new houses are under the management of approved housing body Clúid, who began the process of handing out keys to applicants from Wexford County Council’s housing list over the course of the past week.

The development consists of 67 units – 25 two-storey, three-bed houses; 4 four-bed, three-storey houses; 7 two-bed, two-storey houses; 6 two-bed bungalows; 21 two-bed apartments and 4 one-bed apartments.

A spokesperson for Bawn Developments said: “We were delighted to see that keys had been handed over to these new homes. Our crews finished up and moved off site last week and the new residents began moving in. In total, Barr An Aird took two years to construct, but we were held up for five months due to Covid. The houses are state of the art, modern, energy efficient homes and we’re delighted to see them finally allocated.”

Cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council said that it was “life-changing” for the new tenants who had been allocated housing, particularly given the all to grim backdrop of the current housing crisis.

“I’ve spoken to quite a few of the new residents and they are over the moon,” he said. “These houses are really top quality. The new tenants found it hard to put into words just how life-changing this is for them. They have security of tenure and a top class, nearly-zero-energy home, something which is massive given the increasing cost of fuel. These houses have things like hot water on demand. They’re absolutely top class and I wish the new tenants all the very best in their new homes.”