‘Huge’ housing queue: 15,000 bids for 75 council homes

MORE than 15,000 bids were made on just 75 local authority homes advertised on Cork City Council’s choice-based letting (CBL) system in just over a seven-week period this year, prompting calls for a ramping-up of social housing provision.

CBL is an online system whereby applicants on the council’s housing waiting list can submit an expression of interest by bidding on suitable properties which may meet their housing needs. The properties are then allocated to the applicant whose position on the list is highest in accordance with Cork City Council’s allocation scheme.

The figures were obtained by Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

“These figures are absolutely shocking,” he said. 

“Over 15,000 bids were made on just 75 houses. This shows, clearly, the huge demand in Cork city for safe, secure housing and the number of people who do not have access to this. I am deeply concerned that housing lists in Cork city are just getting longer and that wait times for social housing are now completely out of control.”

He added that the number of social housing units being constructed in the city is insufficient to meet the demand, and said the Government must support Cork City Council in ramping up the supply of social homes.

“On average, these figures [obtained under the FOI request] suggest that over 200 families are bidding on each property available in the city,” said Mr Gould.

“There were 14 individual houses on the CBL that saw over 500 families bid on each of them.

“That is the stark reality of this housing crisis.”

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin councillor in the city’s North West ward, Kenneth Collins, said it is “disheartening to see so many people bidding for so few properties”.

“We need to see significant ramping up of supply and we need real investment in bringing empty council homes back into use.

“It is shocking that these are being left idle when the demand is clearly there.

“There are hundreds of these empty council homes in Cork city right now that could help to alleviate some of this pressure.”

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, Taoiseach Simon Harris contended that progress is being made in relation to the provision of social housing across the country.

“Last year we saw over 22,000 social homes at various stages of construction, and we saw 12,000 social homes being delivered through various means through both our local authorities and our approved housing bodies — that was the largest level of delivery in many decades,” he said.

However, the Taoiseach acknowledged that more needs to be done to meet the demand for housing and said the Government will “continue to look at all forms of different housing options, including an acceleration in relation to social housing”.