Data reveals ‘stark’ statistics on vacant Cork County Council homes

NINETY-FIVE social homes in Cork county were vacant for more than a year, according to the latest available data, with the majority of vacant social housing found in the Mallow-Kanturk local electoral area (LEA).

Cork County Council’s records of vacant council-owned homes are broken down by region into North, South, and West, and data collated at the start of 2025, 2024, 2023, and 2022 was provided to The Echo by Cork County Council on foot of a freedom of information request.

The total number of vacant sites, calculated at the start of each year, was 177 in 2022. This fell to 141 in 2023 and 142 in 2024, but rose again to 183 at the start of 2025.

At the time of data collection, 95 of the 183 properties, or just over half, had been vacant for more than 12 months from the time of compiling the data at the start of this year, meaning they were classified as long-term void (LTV), with one social home vacant since November 2019.

Altogether, eight properties had been vacated in 2025, 138 in 2024, 24 had been vacant since 2023, eight since 2022, four since 2021, and one since 2019.

The list for the West region, made up of Bandon-Kinsale, West Cork-Skibbereen, and West Cork-Bantry, has been the lowest of the three each of the past four years, with 37 social homes listed as being vacant in 2022, 32 in 2023, 18 in 2024, and 27 in 2025.

South, made up of Carrigaline, Cobh, Macroom, and East Cork, had 53 vacant properties in 2022, 59 in 2023, 36 in 2024, and 64 in 2025.

The North section, though it covers just the Fermoy and Mallow-Kanturk local electoral areas, had the highest number of sites on the list in each of the four years, with 87 in 2022, 60 in 2023, 88 in 2024, and 92 in 2025.

Within North Cork, the majority of the vacant properties were found in Mallow-Kanturk, which had a total of 63 vacant properties, according to the most recent figures.

There were 32 casual vacancies and 31 LTV properties at the beginning of this year in the LEA, a slight increase from 17 casual and 36 LTV at the start of 2024.

VACANT SINCE 2014

There was one property in Mallow-Kanturk’s 2024 list that had been vacant since 2014, the only property on a list for more than six years across all documentation seen by The Echo. The property had been removed from the list by the time of compilation of the 2025 list.

The property which had been vacant for the longest in 2025 was also in Mallow-Kanturk — a three-bed, two-storey, semi-detached house in Power Court, Mallow.

There were 42 LTV and 26 casual vacancy properties on the 2022 register in Mallow-Kanturk, and 32 LTV and four casual vacancy properties in 2023.

Labour’s Eoghan Kenny, a former councillor for Mallow and current TD for Cork North-Central, told The Echo: “These vacant social housing figures speak for very stark statistics.

“We are in a housing emergency. Daily, I speak with single people and families across Cork that are crying out for access to housing. This is particularly in relation to those seeking social housing.

“For the ordinary person on a social housing list reading these numbers, it must be disheartening and frustrating. My hometown of Mallow has had such a high volume of vacant and derelict buildings.

“One of the biggest concerns on the doorstep in the elections last year was the issue of dereliction, particularly within their own estates. It is constantly the same estates that are affected.

“I place the blame at the feet of Government here. The local authority can only do so much with the funding that is made available to them. This is a fault of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

“We should not have vacant council houses when there is over 15,000 people homeless.

“We must ensure that central Government provide Cork County Council with the necessary funding to bring these vacant houses back into use. We must be able to house people in Cork.

“With figures like this, and such a lack of urgency, we will never overcome this housing emergency.”

Fermoy, also in the north subdivision of the register, had the second-highest amount of vacant properties; six casual and 29 LTVs in 2024, and 14 casual and 15 LTVs in 2025.

In South Cork, Carrigaline had one casual and six LTVs in 2024, and five casual and 10 LTVs in 2025, while East Cork had two and 10 last year and 12 and 13 this year, while Macroom had two casual and 10 LTVs both years.

Across Cork county, Cobh was the joint-least affected by vacancy. The register shows five LTVs and no casual vacancies in 2024, rising slightly to eight casual and four LTV at the start of this year.

The other lowest, with equal figures, was Bandon-Kinsale in West Cork. The LEA had four casual and one LTV on its 2024 register, and then three casual and nine LTVs in 2025.

The remaining LEA, West Cork, had 10 casual vacancies in 2024, and 12 in 2025.

There were three LTVs in both years, representing the lowest long-term vacancy rate this year.

A spokesperson for Cork County Council told The Echo that 183 of the council’s 8,333 social housing units are currently vacant, representing 2.2% of its properties overall.

They said: “All vacated dwellings require some refurbishment works before they are relet.

“In some cases, and depending on the age and condition of the dwelling, the council will take the opportunity to carry out major repairs and/or energy retrofitting.

“An average of 150 properties are returned to the council each year. This can be due to the death of a tenant, the transfer of a tenant to another dwelling, or the voluntary surrender of a property.

“The vacant units are at one of the following stages in the reletting process; required repairs being assessed, works being carried out, tenancy offered but not yet commenced, or tenant selection process underway.”

With Ireland, and Cork, in the midst of a housing emergency, new figures from Cork County Council have revealed how many vacant council-owned homes there are in the county. Amy Campbell looks through the data

way.”