Thousands of empty ‘above the shop’ units could fix housing
THOUSANDS of vacant commercial properties have the potential to help solve the housing crisis if the right support is given to bring them into use as homes, a new report claims.
With 60,000 people waiting for social housing and record numbers of homeless people in emergency accommodation, the Simon Community says policymakers and the public alike increasingly point to vacant units as an untapped opportunity to solve the housing crisis.
Their new report points to thousands of vacant abovethe-shop units – known as VATSUs – but warns they are problematic to bring into use because of change of use planning issues.
The report, jointly produced with DCU, describes them as ‘particularly complex units to bring into reuse, requiring significantly more flexibility, resources, risk mitigation and absorption, contingency planning, and multi-disciplinary work than other types of vacant units’.
It says: ‘Amidst these prescertifications sures, VATSUs have long been upheld as a promising form of vacancy that could be converted to residential use, supporting sustainable reuse of existing building stock while also contributing to densification of urban and town centres.’
‘One-stop shops’ enabling people to get change of use permission and safety certification fast was needed, said Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin.
‘If you own a shop and above it is vacant and you want to bring it back into use the first thing you have to do is get a “change of use” planning permission and you have to get around disability and fire regulations etc and that is both a time-consuming and expensive process. There needs to be what’s called a “one stop shop” by which you can go into the local authority and get all of that certification and change of use in a quick and affordable manner.
‘The second thing is, in terms of the actual refurb costs, there are already schemes that are out there, so the Government has a repair and lease scheme, where if you want to lease a unit out for social housing they’ll give you an upfront payment of up to €40,000. That can go toward the refurbishment costs,’ said Deputy Ó Broin. He added: ‘The real issue is to remove the barriers to get people in a position where they can brings unit into use whether for social housing, for rental or for sale. “One stop shop” and those kind of reforms on planning and certification are key.’
The report argues that, despite the complexity and challenges of vacant abovethe-shop-unit conversions, there is significant potential for all types of accommodation.
Central Bank Governor Gabriel Makhlouf earlier this week called for the planning process to be speeded up to help unlock thousands of urgently-needed homes.
But in the case of converting vacant units above shops, the added costs and responsibilities may not make financial sense to owners. There is also concern that owners will be financially worse off than if they hadn’t undertaken any work, the report says.
‘For both buildings, colleagues assessed the costs of applying for planning and renovations and found that the cost of delivery per unit would be substantially more than other acquisitions and developments.’
A Department of Housing spokesman said: ‘Planning regulations, introduced in 2018, which exempted certain vacant commercial premises, including “over the shop” type spaces, from requiring planning permission to change to residential purposes have been extended until 2025. The scope of the exemption was also extended to include ‘public houses’. Tackling vacancy is a key priority for this Government.’
‘One stop shops are key’