Cork City Council considering charging owners of vacant buildings full rates

Owners of vacant commercial buildings in the city could have to pay full rates in a measure being considered by Cork City Council.

The move would mean the removal of a scheme that has lost the local authority some €15.5m in rates in the last four years.

The city council wrote off €3.8m in 2025, €3.9m in 2024, €4m in 2023, and €3.7m in 2022 in commercial rates on vacant buildings.

The rates reduction offered to owners of commercial properties, designed to encourage them to develop the buildings, was reduced from 50% to 40% in Cork city in the 2025 council budget.

In a report presented to councillors, chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan said that this reduction resulted in a 3% increase in collection levels, indicating that it has incentivised occupancy or development, she said.

Ms O’Sullivan said the council must “consider the possibility that increased costs of commercial rates may result in properties being allowed to fall into a further state of disrepair.

“However, it must also consider that the removal of vacancy relief could well encourage property owners to re-evaluate their development plans and introduce urgency to a return to occupancy.”

Consider alternative uses 

Owners might also consider alternative uses for commercial premises, including residential use, which would increase the availability of housing units, she suggested.

In addition, owners might make property available to voluntary and community groups, possibly on short-term agreements.

Such groups currently turn to the council for premises, which is “a demand we are unable to meet from within our own property resources”, she said.

Ms O’Sullivan said regardless of the existence of a vacancy relief initiative, “rates collection in respect of vacant property is a constant challenge”.

Legal action

“The council can and does take legal action, and owners commonly claim an inability to pay rates in respect of vacant premises,” she added.

Cork County Council currently applies 100% vacancy relief, which has previously fed fears that businesses might choose to locate to the county to save on rates, but Ms O’Sullivan said the comparison was not “like with like”.

She said: “The imperative to return commercial properties to use in the county area arguably is not as pressing, and vacancy is far more dispersed, with impacts less intense than in the city setting.

“A business decision to locate in either the city or county is far more likely to be based on factors other than the level of vacancy relief.”

She thus recommended that the vacancy relief rate on commercial premises is reduced from 40% to zero for 2027.

This will come before council at the 2027 budget adoption meeting to be held on Monday, November 23, where councillors will also be looking at increasing commercial rates by 7%.

Labour’s Peter Horgan told The Echo: “It’s unacceptable that businesses that are paying their rents and rates are staring at vacant commercial buildings enjoying a discount on what they owe.

“Those businesses who are paying their bills deserve to see discounts removed on those not making any effort.”