Councillors angered by hundreds of empty homes
Fine Gael said it was disgraceful that so many local authority homes were empty at a time when the city’s housing waiting list had soared over the 6,000 mark.
The new figures, which were accurate to the end of September, were released to Fine Gael councillor Patricia Gosch this week.
“If you place a conservative value of €200,000 per unit, then the value of the council’s vacant dwellings comes to €70.6 million,” she said.
“It is disgraceful that at a time when there are 6,000 people on housing waiting lists in Cork such valuable resources are not being used.”
Of the 353 vacant dwellings, 189 are in the north-west area of the city alone.
Ms Gosch said it was a damning indictment of local and national housing policy.
“There are nearly 6,000 people now on the city’s social housing list or waiting to get on to it,” she said.
“In addition a further 1,319 applicants are waiting on the affordable housing waiting list.
“These figures are the highest they have ever been in Cork, at a time when the Government is supposedly investing more than ever into social housing.
“Unfortunately for those waiting the figures speak for themselves. No wonder there is so much anger in the community about housing.”
Meanwhile, City Manager Joe Gavin has defended the price of homes which are being built in Shanakiel under a major affordable housing scheme being undertaken in a partnership between a developer and the council.
Mr Gavin said the prices of the more than 200 units — which will range in price from €175,000 for a two-bed apartment up to €235,000 for a three-bed house — will still be up to 40% below the market value of such units.
“They are great value in any man’s language,” Mr Gavin said.
Four bedroom homes in a similar scheme at Buckley’s Meadow in Blackrock cost just €171,000.
But Mr Gavin said the council owned the land here and in other affordable schemes prices were cheaper.
The cost of acquiring land at Shanakiel had an impact on the final cost of the homes, he said.
