Cork City Council spent €43m on buying 140 new social and affordable homes

Cork City Council has spent almost €43m on buying 140 houses through 'part five' schemes in the last five years, but the amount of houses bought last year was down 47%.

Under ‘part five’ legislation, local authorities may buy new houses from property developers for social and affordable housing.

Martina Broderick, the council’s acting director of housing, said that in the last five years, almost €43m has been spent on such acquisitions.

The council spent an average of €311,224 per home between 2021 and 2025.

There have been 138 homes purchased under this scheme in the same five-year period, but 2025 saw the amount of homes acquired decrease by almost half from the previous year, breaking a pattern of annual increases.

In 2021, the council bought 16 units through the part five scheme, at a cost of €4.5m.

This increased to a spent of €5.9m on 21 units in 2022, €11.1m on 37 units in 2023, and €14.2m on 42 units in 2024, before falling to €7.3m for 22 units last year, representing 47% fewer houses than had been purchased in 2024.

The highest cost per unit ranged from €301,344 in 2022 to €410,000 in 2024, while average costs ranged from €279,937 per unit in 2021 to €338,339 in 2024, an increase of more than 20%.

The information was provided at last week’s meeting of Cork City Council to Sinn Féin’s Kenneth Collins, who asked how many part five purchases Cork City Council has made in the last five years, the total amount spent, the number of units this related to, and the highest price paid per year.