Dithering on vacant homes is shameful in a housing crisis
FIVE years ago, the Government said tackling the issue of vacant and derelict houses would be a central pillar of its Rebuilding Ireland strategy. Yet when asked in the Dáil recently how many such properties there were, Junior Minister Jack Chambers, whose remit includes the Central Statistics Office, could not give an answer.
Subsequently, the Irish Mail On Sunday asked the Department of Housing and the Department of the Taoiseach for the exact number, and no answer was forthcoming. Independently, we have verified through An Post’s GeoDirectory service that there are just under 99,000 vacant and derelict homes, not including holiday homes and second homes, and just over 23,000 business premises, many of which could be repurposed as social and affordable housing.
As we report today, the once thriving Market Square in Gort, Co. Galway, is a stark example of a nationwide trend. One by one, family businesses there closed, but the loss was not just commercial. Most of those families lived over the shop, and that accommodation also remains vacant. This is even though Gort is within easy commuting distance of Galway city where, according to property website Daft.ie, just 27 rental properties are available, with two-bedroom apartments on offer for €2,000 a month.
As economist John Daly also points out, 45,000 houses and commercial properties are vacant in the west and northwest of the country alone, more than the estimated 33,000 houses needed for rent or purchase annually.
On Friday, in the Dáil, and later on The Late Late Show, Taoiseach Micheál Martin spoke of building modular homes – prefabricated units that can be quickly erected to accommodate the expected arrival of several thousand refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. It is correct that we offer sanctuary to refugees, but if such homes can be a solution to the accommodation crisis, why has it not been applied over the past five years?
At the very least, we need an accurate register of vacant homes. We need greater penalties in the form of tax on those who leave them lying idle. We need subsidised mortgages and generous renovation grants to encourage people to buy them and to live in them, not to use them for further speculation.
After five years of dithering, it is shameful that so little action has been taken to restore these houses to individual or family use. It is even more shameful that not only has the Government not meaningfully addressed the issue, it also appears not to have a clue about the potential that exists.