Former Cork pubs are turned into 65 new homes

Since new planning rules were brought in, there have been 182 changes of use from commercial to residential property in Cork city and county, creating 402 homes, with 65 of these from 15 former pubs.

New data published by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne, shows that between 2018 and 2024, Irish local authorities received 1,457 notifications to convert vacant commercial properties into new homes, with the potential to create 3,429 new homes throughout the country.

Planning exemptions introduced in 2018 removed the requirement for planning permission for the conversion of certain types of commercial properties into residential units.

Last year (2024) saw the highest change of use notifications received by local authorities across Ireland since the scheme began in 2018.

There were two in 2018, one in 2019, nine in 2020, 11 in 2021, 10 in 2022, eight in 2023, but this jumped to 29 notifications in 2024.

In all, Cork city has received 70 of these notifications since 2018. These 70 applications relate to 188 units — whereby an application might cover conversion from one property to several — and these applications resulted in the creation of five residential units in 2018, four in 2019, 22 in 2020, 34 in 2021, 35 in 2022, 20 in 2023 and 68 last year.

In Cork county, there were a total of 112 notifications of change of use – six in 2018, 10 in 2019, 19 in 2020, 20 in 2021, 10 in 2022, 25 in 2023 and 22 in 2024.

These resulted in the creation of 214 residential units – six in 2018, 19 in 2019, 33 in 2020, 48 in 2021, 25 in 2022, 50 in 2023 and 33 last year.

In 2022, the exemption was extended to allow vacant pubs to be converted into homes.

Since then, there have been 154 notifications for a change of use relating to vacant pubs nationally, with the potential to provide 459 new homes. From 2022 to 2024, there were five notifications relating to former pubs in Cork city and 10 in Cork county, relating to 34 housing units in the city and 31 in the county.

Commenting on the new figures, Mr Browne said: “Planning exemptions play a vital role in unlocking the potential of vacant commercial buildings, making it much more straight-forward to convert them into much-needed homes.

“I feel very strongly about buildings lying, often vacant, in the middle of a housing crisis, and to be honest it is not acceptable if a conversion is possible.

“It is imperative that we convert suitable properties into homes and give people the opportunity to do that.

“Where planning exemptions can work to activate these properties, then I want it to happen. We want our towns and cities to be living and working areas.

“We recognise the face of our towns is always changing, and we have to adapt to that and rise to the need right now of people for homes.

“Transforming premises such as former pubs is a practical community-focused solution, which as well as streamlining the planning process, makes efficient use of existing infrastructure and services.

“This measure, not only boosts the supply of homes, but also our town centre first policy which is breathing new life into our villages, towns and cities by supporting regeneration and more vibrant, sustainable communities across the country.”