Housing charity urges rethink on demolition plans

A leading housing charity today urged state bad-bank Nama to only consider knocking down empty and unfinished houses as a last resort.

The Respond Housing Association called for a national audit of abandoned homes and so-called ghost estates before civil servants chasing developers’ debts order demolition.

Spokeswoman Aoife Walsh said waiting lists for local authority accommodation were rising and said Nama should now deliver on the promised social dividend.

“It could be argued that the only real housing market at the moment is the social housing market as private demand has been virtually wiped out,” she said.

It is estimated there are between 301,000 and 352,000 vacant houses in Ireland.

Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh yesterday told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service it may be forced to knock down unfinished property developments outside Dublin.

The agency has taken control of the first tranche of loans from major banks paying almost half the book value for them.

But Nama has warned only one third of loans – €27bn of the €81bn to be taken over by Nama – are functioning with debtors paying money owed or at the very least some of the interest on the loan.

As a result Mr McDonagh warned demolition may be the only course of action.

But Ms Walsh said: “From our experience, there are few empty estates with no residents at all. However, we have come across many, many estates with only a handful of people living in them and we would ask what Nama proposes for them?

“We should be trying to create vibrant, sustainable communities for these people and that is why we would consider knocking down houses as the very last resort.”

Independent research from the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis at NUI Maynooth reported 302,625 houses are not inhabited, including properties for rent or for sale, homes not on the market as well as abandoned houses.

It does not include the estimated 49,000 holiday homes.

UCD put the vacancy level at about 280,000 but both those huge figures are vary hugely from the Construction Industry Federation’s rate of about 40,000 and Government estimates of between 122,000 and 147,000.

Respond called on Nama to consider the social gain local authorities could secure by using empty houses.

It said the agency should look at different options of selling, leasing, holding, developing or managing half empty estates and vacant houses before deciding to demolish them.