Just 47 homes have been purchased so far under a €150 million Government fund established to buy vacant and derelict homes in 2023.
Figures released to Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman also show that many local authorities have spent tiny percentages of their overall allocation from the fund, with just under €7.5 million spent across the State so far.
In October 2023, the government issued a round of funding under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF), with €150 million set aside for long-term vacancy and dereliction measures.
The fund is designed to allow local authorities to purchase vacant properties for resale to buyers willing to commit to bringing them back into residential use, with proceeds from the sale then recycled back into the fund.
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However, a one-year review found that while 1,297 properties were approved by the department for inclusion, only 47 had been acquired.
A further 70 were in the process of being acquired either by agreement with the owner or through compulsory purchase – the Department of Housing estimates the total figure may now have risen to 60 completed purchases.
Mr O’Gorman – who was in government when the programme was approved – said derelict and vacant homes are “the lowest hanging fruit” when it comes to providing more housing, with more than 80,000 such units in Ireland.
“I’m really concerned to see such a low level of spend across all local authorities, and so few houses purchased. The Minister needs to urgently review this scheme, figure out why it isn’t delivering more quickly, and reform it,” he said.
The department said that following engagement, 262 of the identified properties were being brought back into use by the owner without need for local authority engagement and 72 were being dealt with under different State funding programmes. Another 170 properties identified were not in fact vacant. It said nearly 50 per cent of the properties approved were coming out of vacancy or dereliction.
Green Party councillor for Louth Marianne Butler – where the local authority has spent €120,000 of a total allocation of €7 million – said for people “surrounded by dereliction and vacant properties this seems like another fake fund giving false hope rather than real action”.
Asked for comment, the department said the aim of the programme was to tackle vacancy and dereliction, but that could be “achieved in a number of ways other than purchase by the local authority. For example, the relevant property could be brought back in to use by the original owner.”
Targets for homes to be bought by each local authority have not been set under the programme, a spokesman said.
