€116m debt for Cork council as 800 affordable homes lie empty

UP to 800 homes earmarked for the affordable housing scheme have remained unsold by Cork County Council, leaving the council with a €116 million debt for the empty properties.

The Affordable Housing Partnership, set up at the height of the boom to help first-time buyers who were priced out of the market, has been left with more than 1,100 empty units around the country.

Since 2005, around 13,000 homes have been bought from developers for between 30% and 50% lower than their market value.

But chief executive of the scheme, John O’Connor, has admitted the market has caught up with them and they are now worth the same or less than what was paid for them.

“A lot of properties would be at market value now and a proportion of them, 10%, would be below market value,” he said.

Cork South Central TD Deirdre Clune told an Oireachtas Committee this week: “I’m surprised there are 1,100 affordable houses because the information I have from Cork County Council is that there are 800 affordable housing units.

“They made a commitment, or borrowed €116m to purchase those, and they now have 800 units on their hands,” she said.

Mr O’Connor said Cork County Council was “one of the outstanding local authorities in relation to seeking affordable housing” when units were being purchased from developers.

It is still the intention of the council to sell these units. If that does not happen they will be leased for use as social houses with tenants getting the option to buy them.

This has already happened in the case of 1,600 unsold affordable housing units. In relation to the 1,100 units countrywide, Mr O’Connor said it was still the intention to sell those homes.