Why We're Building NeighbourWood
Why Ireland? Why woodland communities? And why on earth would you move your family across an ocean to start a housing company?
The answer isn’t complicated. We’re building the kind of community we want to live in — and we’re proving our conviction by living in it ourselves.
The Spark
I’ve spent thirty years in climate and sustainability — co-founding the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), helping launch 500+ companies, helping to facilitate over a billion dollars in funding. I’ve seen countless pitches for technologies that would “change everything.” Some did. Most didn’t.
What I observed, again and again, is that the best solutions work because they align incentives. They make doing the right thing also the profitable thing. They don’t require people to sacrifice — they offer something better.
Housing is the ultimate test of this principle.
Everyone needs a home they can afford. And the way we build homes has massive environmental impact: the materials, the energy use, the land footprint, the transportation patterns they create. But telling people to live in smaller spaces, to pay more for less comfort, has never worked. The math has to add up.
That’s what we’ve designed NeighbourWood to do.
Why Ireland
Several factors drew us to Ireland specifically:
A housing crisis that needs new solutions. Ireland needs 80,000+ homes per year and consistently builds far fewer. The shortage is severe, the prices are inaccessible for many, and conventional approaches aren’t solving it.
A climate action commitment. Ireland has binding emissions reduction targets and growing policy support for sustainable development. The regulatory environment is moving in our direction — from the Climate Action Plan to EU Nature Restoration Law compliance.
Native woodland restoration potential. Ireland is one of the least forested countries in Europe, with only about 11% tree cover — and much of that is non-native plantation. The opportunity to restore native ecosystems is immense.
Planning and legal frameworks. Ireland’s planning system allows for the kind of development we’re pursuing, and enables the permanent stewardship covenants that make our model work.
Quality of life. We wanted to raise our family somewhere with strong community values, good education, and genuine connection to nature. Ireland offers all of that.
The 10:1 Model
The core insight is simple: what if every home came with permanent woodland? Not a token green space that gets sold off in ten years. Not a developer’s promise that evaporates after handover. Permanent, native, professionally managed woodland held in trust forever.
The 10:1 Model is how we make it real: every ten net-zero homes sustained by one hectare of permanent native woodland. We develop homes on dedicated residential sites and separately establish a Woodland Bank — large-scale native woodland held in perpetuity by the NeighbourWood Stewardship Trust (NST), an independent entity with an irrevocable asset lock.
Every home sold is permanently linked to the Woodland Bank through a binding stewardship covenant. The woodland and residential sites are intentionally separate — typically 5–20 km apart — because each can then be sited for its optimal purpose. Residential land chosen for housing density and access. Woodland land chosen for ecological suitability, soil type, and connectivity to existing habitats.
The woodland provides amenity value for residents, habitat for wildlife, carbon sequestration for the climate, and ongoing environmental credit revenue. The homes provide natural, healthy, net-zero places for people to live, generating development profit and perpetual stewardship fees.
Each part makes the other possible. The woodland isn’t a cost centre to be minimised — it’s a value generator that makes the community special and anchors our ability to build affordable net-zero homes.
And the homeowner math works. Every home carries a three-tier annual fee of €2,220 covering estate management, woodland stewardship, and energy infrastructure. But because our homes are built to the Passivhaus standard — heated by the earth, powered by the sun — homeowners will save €3,220–5,010 per year in direct energy and household costs. That’s a net annual benefit of €1,000–2,790 after fees. Doing the right thing is also the financially better thing.
The Commitment
Here’s where we’re different from most developers: we will purchase a home in our first development. At full market price. And we will live in it with our family.
Why does this matter?
Because we’re not building something for other people while we live somewhere else. We’re building our home. Our community. The place where we will raise our children and welcome our neighbours.
Every decision we make — the quality of construction, the covenant structures, the fee levels, the woodland management — will affect us directly. We will have complete alignment with our future residents because we will be one of them.
This isn’t a marketing gimmick. We’ve invested over €200,000 in personal capital — STEP visa and relocation costs, plus the down payment on our home. We moved our family from Los Angeles to Spain, and we will relocate to Ireland upon visa approval. We’re betting everything on this working.
If that’s not conviction, I don’t know what is.
What Success Looks Like
Within twenty-four months, we want to be living in a completed Passivhaus home — certified to the highest residential energy standard — with a Woodland Bank of newly planted native woodland linked to our community. We want neighbours who chose this community for the same reasons we did. We want verified data showing our homes produce more energy than they consume. We want third-party confirmation that our Woodland Bank is sequestering carbon and supporting biodiversity.
And we want to be planning the next community — and the one after that — with councils and partners who’ve seen our model work firsthand.
Beyond that, we see NeighbourWood becoming a platform. Our N-OS (NeighbourWood Operating System) packages everything we’ve learned into a licensable model. Other developers, housing associations, and councils across the UK and EU will be able to replicate what we’ve built — sourcing residential sites and Woodland Bank sites independently to match their local conditions. The UK’s mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain requirement alone creates enormous demand for integrated housing-woodland approaches.
We generate revenue from three engines: home sales, perpetual stewardship fees, and export licensing. Competitors build houses. We build infrastructure.
Our goal isn’t just to build one great community. It’s to prove a model that can scale across Europe and provide positive impact toward the housing and biodiversity crises we’re facing.
An Invitation
If you’re reading this, you might be someone who shares our vision. Maybe you’re looking for a home that reflects your values. Maybe you’re an investor seeking climate infrastructure opportunities. Maybe you’re a council housing officer wondering if there’s a better way. Maybe you’re a potential partner who could help us build.
Whatever brought you here, we’d love to hear from you.
This is our life’s work. We’re building it with everything we have. And we believe it can help solve two of the defining challenges of our time: the housing crisis and the climate crisis, together.
Ten homes. One hectare. Forever.
That’s the future we’re building. Come join us.
Neal Anderson is CEO and Co-Founder of NeighbourWood Communities, a climate infrastructure platform building net-zero woodland communities in Ireland. He and his wife Esther will relocate to Ireland to build and live in the first NeighbourWood development.
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