Lowering the bar for new homes..
» Old pubs revamp plan » Permission not required
NEW by-laws which would enable vacant and derelict pubs to be turned into homes without the need for planning permission will be brought before the Oireachtas in weeks.
Housing Minister Darragh O’brien added yesterday a new grant will be announced for first-time buyers who want to purchase a run down property.
He said packages of between €20,000 and €30,000 will soon be available.
He added: “So a lot of potential first-time buyers are out there who see properties on the main streets of our towns and villages and indeed are looking at them saying, ‘If I had a little bit of assistance I could buy there I could live there’.”
Addressing converting pubs to residential use without the requirement for planning permission, Mr O’brien added: “I believe that we will be able to untap a fairly significant resource of very prominent buildings.
“Most of our towns and villages are where our pubs are... they are on the main streets.”
A residential buildings report published by geodirectory this week revealed there are 100,000 derelict and vacant homes.
DESTROYING
Caitriona Scully, one of the thousands of first-time buyers in Ireland, told RTE: “It’s soul destroying sometimes, you are looking at €40,000 to €50,000 above your budget and when you do the numbers, you’re like, ‘I can never afford that’.”
She had been trying to get on the property ladder and buy her first home for two years and after a long struggle she eventually purchased a house in Limerick recently.
She added: “The maximum I would have been able to get is €120,000 so I started looking in that bracket over that time frame and literally everything that I was finding was all derelict properties. I could not find anything in my price range.
“I got lucky in the end I found something, but it wasn’t exactly in my price range, I got a little bit of help with it.”
Assistant Professor in Social Policy at Maynooth University Rory Hearne said: “What we need is a really effective vacant and derelict property tax.
“What is vital is that it is enough of a disincentive that essentially it forces property owners of vacant and derelict properties to sell or to do it up and use it as rental homes.”