The National Asset Management Agency has completed the transfer of two 'major' sites with capacity to deliver up to about 4,500 homes to the Land Development Agency.
The sites are in Lissenhall in north Co Dublin, and Celbridge in Co Kildare, and comprise almost 300 acres in total.
The Lissenhall site (212 acres) has capacity for 3,000 to 3,500 new homes and includes the proposed site for the terminus of the Metrolink rail project.
The site is currently being used primarily for agricultural purposes and is zoned for residential development.
The Celbridge site (86 acres) has capacity for 850 to 1,000 new homes. It is currently being used for agricultural purposes and is next to a site on which the Department of Education intends to build three new schools.
A planning application for 344 new homes on the Celbridge site is also currently in the planning system.
As the transfer is between two State bodies, it means the sites will remain in State ownership.
The €68.5m value of the two sites will form part of NAMA's lifetime surplus, which is in the process of being transferred to the Exchequer.
The NAMA Board is projecting that NAMA's lifetime contribution to the Exchequer will be €5.5 billion, inclusive of its lifetime surplus of €5.05 billion and corporation tax payments of about €450m.
Brendan McDonagh, NAMA's chief executive, said that as the agency approaches its anticipated wind-down, it has continued to look for ways to maximise the value of sites in its portfolio through intensive asset management and accelerating work to enable the future construction of additional new homes.
John Coleman, chief executive of the Land Development Agency, said the LDA is firmly committed to using every lever available to unlock land for the provision of affordable housing.
"Through transfers of State-owned land, partnerships with local authorities and through our own land acquisitions, the LDA has a strong and growing delivery pipelinem" he said.
"Kildare and the Greater Dublin Area is a fast-developing and strategically important region with a pressing housing need and we are delighted to acquire these important sites for the delivery of much-needed new homes," he added.
