Increased funding for councils to return vacant homes to use
Funding for councils to bring empty homes back into the housing stock is to increase. Picture: Denis Minihane
Funding for councils to bring empty homes back into the housing stock is to be increased in a bid to tackle vacancy and dereliction.
In November 2020 Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien increased the amount available under the repair and leasing scheme from €40,000 to €60,000, but an increase for 2023 will see the maximum amount increase to €80,000 per home.
Under the repair and leasing scheme, the local authority or approved housing body pays for the repairs to a vacant property upfront and then the home is taken into social housing stock by way of lease for between five and 25 years. The cost of repairs is offset against reduced lease payments to the property owner and so has a neutral cost to the Exchequer.
The scheme itself was only used 69 and 45 times in 2020 and 2021 respectively, but figures for the first half of 2022 showed that 51 homes had been remediated in that time, and it has been credited by Waterford Council as a key factor in its ability to surpass social housing targets.
Speaking to the , Mr O'Brien said that he "wants to see people living in communities" and will be making an announcement on the Croí Cónaithe fund this month.
He said there has been "significant interest" in the scheme, which aims to bridge the viability gap between the cost of building apartments and the market sale price.
"This is basically our apartments fund," he said.
"This is about activating stalled permissions with a view to those schemes being developed for people to buy those apartments. It's for people to buy apartments in our five main cities. So I'll be doing that in the first quarter, hopefully early in the first quarter."
Mr O'Brien said there will also be an announcement on the second round of Project Tosaigh schemes this month.
"I expect that in January, we're going to the final details of that right now," he said. "But there'll be a significant number of homes in both. I don't want to settle on a figure yet because I haven't got the final submissions yet. I think the Project Tosaigh one, even though it is a smaller scheme, has actually shown that we can deliver homes under that scheme this year."
Mr O'Brien said the Government has now identified 38 pieces of council-owned land on which the State will pay down legacy debt if councils build housing.
He said that this will be coupled with a fund to allow for the purchase of more land.
