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More than 1,300 new homes in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area are being blocked due to a lack of capacity in the local sewage network, according to Build Homes NI, the representative body for Northern Ireland's largest housebuilders.
The warning comes as there are 3,927 on the waiting list for social housing in the Newry, Mourne and Down area according to the NI Housing Bulletin. The Department of Finance has stated that only 510 new private and social homes were built in the council area last year, between October 2024 and September 2025, down 31 on the previous year.
The impact on housebuilding was confirmed by Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins in response to a question in the Northern Ireland Assembly this month. NI Water has advised that nine wastewater treatment works in the local area have no remaining capacity, with a further nine operating at restricted capacity.
Build Homes NI Director Paul McErlean said: "Wastewater is critical infrastructure, but years of underinvestment has left much of Northern Ireland's sewage network at full capacity. No capacity means no new connections and that means any new development, be that housing or factories, could be refused planning permission."
Mr McErlean added: "This is terrible news for people trying to get onto the housing ladder for the first time and helps explain why increases in rent and house prices in Northern Ireland are the fastest growing in the UK."
The underlying issue, according to Build Homes NI, is chronic underfunding of NI Water, which receives the vast majority of its income from the Northern Ireland Executive. Mr McErlean warned that the pipeline of housing development sites is beginning to dry up and that housebuilders are being forced to look outside Northern Ireland for work. He described the Executive's current three-pronged approach to wastewater issues as "wholly inadequate given the scale of the crisis and the £2 billion deficit NI Water faces in its next funding period."
A report produced last year by the NI Chamber of Commerce, the NI Federation of Housing Associations and the Construction Employers Federation estimated that the poor state of Northern Ireland's sewage network was costing the economy £2.5 billion in Gross Value Added. The NI Independent Fiscal Council has also concluded that in the absence of additional funding from Westminster, the Executive would need to raise additional revenue from domestic charging or other sources if NI Water is to deliver sustainable services and support residential and commercial development.
Mr McErlean called on local MLAs to press the Northern Ireland Executive for a long-term solution, warning that without one "the public will pay the price of political inaction through higher housing and rental costs, lost jobs, lost economic growth and pollution caused by untreated sewage spills."
