Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 November 2021
297. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the estimated number of properties which are vacant for longer than a transitional period which might become the target of policies to tackle vacancy. [57491/21]
View answerAddressing vacancy and maximising the use of existing housing stock is a primary concern of this Government, as demonstrated by one of the four pathways dedicated solely to this priority area in the new Housing for All strategy. The most recent figures available from Census 2016 indicate that there were 183,000 vacant homes nationwide, a 20% reduction on figures reported in Census 2011 (230,000).
Work is underway by the Department of Finance through the current Local Property Tax returns to assess the present vacancy situation and once collated and analysed this data will provide a new data set on vacant homes.
Local authorities will always have a level of vacancy in their housing stock. This will fluctuate over time, as tenancy surrender and re-letting of stock is an ongoing process. Therefore, ongoing data in relation to vacant local authority owned homes are not collated by my Department.
Statistics in relation to social housing stock, at a point in time, are published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in their Annual Reports on Performance Indicators in Local Authorities. These reports provide a range of information in relation to social housing stock, including levels of vacancy in local authority owned properties. The most recent report, relating to 2020, is available on the NOAC website at the following link:
noac.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/NOAC-Local-Authority-Performance-Indicator-Report-2020.pdf.
My Department and local authorities, supported by the Local Government Management Association, are working to transition from a largely response and voids based approach to housing stock management and maintenance to a planned maintenance approach as referenced in Housing for All, policy objective 20.6. This will require the implementation of centrally hosted ICT system to support the completion of stock condition surveys by all local authorities and the subsequent development of strategic and informed work programmes which will be supported by my Department’s stock improvement funding programmes. It is envisaged that these surveys will commence early in 2022.
