Thousands of vacant properties across Cork could be converted for housing

A Cork city councillor has said that getting out and informing people of grants available to convert vacant properties should be a key priority for the council.

His comments follow a new report from Hardware Association Ireland (HAI) that shows thousands of units in Cork could be brought into use as housing.

It showed that, nationally, there are 40,000 units that could be made available through increased incentives for property owners, and HAI called for the introduction of a waiver on capital gains tax for over-the-shop properties.

HAI further estimates that the total potential in Cork city and county is about 3,660 units, including 1,830 empty homes and the same amount of over-the-shop units.

93% those spoken to as part of the report, a mixture of property owners and estate agents, called for a tax waiver to be introduced as an immediate incentive, saying this would result in an increase in turnover and a rise in rejuvenation of the large numbers of vacant properties.

Consideration

Of property owners, 70% have given serious consideration to renovating and renting the premises, showing that there is an interest in turning them around.

Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy said the council should continue its work on getting out and informing people about the vacant property grants already available.

“I’ve been calling for a larger roadshow, more open days, because clearly there’s an interest there in restoring vacant properties.

“The key is to get out and meet people rather than sitting behind a desk and saying ‘I wish this was happening’.”

He said that lots of work was being done on trying to turn around vacant and derelict properties, with several schemes including one to convert old pubs.

However, he added that there were sometimes legal issues around ownership of these properties, and in some cases planning regulations including fire safety rules were also preventing some properties from being brought back into use, particularly for housing.

“I have a massive issue with people who hoard property, but I think there’s a lot more situations whereby the people who lived there have died or the family are living somewhere else and the ownership is lost in a deed somewhere.

“There needs to be a continued discussion about CPOs and where funding is going to come from. There’s only so much the council can do because it doesn’t have a large legal department.”

Waiver

Mr McCarthy added that the idea of the capital gains tax waiver was interesting, but said that trying to push two tax levels could be difficult, as they had seen with rates currently paid to the council by business owners.

Hardware Association Ireland president Paul Condon explained that, at present, the vacant property refurbishment grant is up to €50,000 to renovate a vacant property, and up to €70,000 if the property is derelict.

He said: “The vacant home grant is very successful with single dwellings.

“There are 11,327 applications, 7,700 of which have been approved nationwide [as of the end of December, 2024]. However, it has little attraction for those who could convert commercial properties into a number of living units.”

At the end of December, 2024, the approved number of grants for Cork city and county combined was 708 out of a total of 7,738 applications approved nationwide.

This figure is made up of 10% apartments, 53% properties in housing estates or schemes, 18% single homes, and 19% empty homes.