Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
2761. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the number of vacant properties; the number suitable for social housing; the number that have been considered for acquisition by local authorities by authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35062/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn relation to residential vacancy levels, a certain amount of high level data is available from Census 2016 which indicated a national residential vacancy figure of 183,312, significantly down from the previous figure of 230,056 dwellings in 2011. However, it must be acknowledged that this figure is only a snapshot at a point in time and it includes properties that were temporarily vacant at the time of the Census, such as properties either for sale or for rent and properties that were not available for occupation, such as where probate or other issues arose.
My Department has been working to develop improved tools to monitor long-term vacancy and to better understand the reasons behind it. In addition, local authorities have been doing on-the-ground exercises to look at vacancy and initial information suggests that the vacancy levels in urban areas are in fact very low.
More work needs to be done in this area and my Department has put in place a Vacant Homes Unit (VHU) to work on these issues with the aim of driving and co-ordinating actions at central and local government levels and supporting local authorities in their actions. The VHU works with other stakeholders such as the Central Statistics Office, the local government sector and the Housing Agency to improve the range and usefulness of the data available around vacant homes. The key focus is to enable local authorities to quickly identify vacancy hotspots, particularly in areas where there is a high demand for homes, and which have vacant or under-utilised houses that are capable of being brought back into use.
One of the actions currently being undertaken is a pilot survey of residential vacancy in six local authority areas, which is targeted towards areas that have been identified as being more likely to contain vacant units. The data from the pilot survey will be analysed to better understand the reasons behind vacancy and to inform potential new policy measures, as well as being used at local level to provide each local authority with information about houses that may be capable of being brought back into use. If the pilot survey proves successful, the approach will be considered for roll out to other local authorities.
I have also provided initial funding to enable local authorities to establish Vacant Homes Offices, staffed by Vacant Homes Officers who will be available to deal with queries from members of the public in respect of private residential vacant properties in their administrative area and who will be able to work on establishing a pipeline of vacant houses which can be either acquired for social housing or encouraged to be brought back into use for private housing. A list of Vacant Homes Officers and their contact details is available on my Department’s website at www.housing.gov.ie/housing/home-ownership/vacant-homes/vacant-homes. Local authorities have also produced Vacant Homes Action Plans for their administrative areas, setting out goals and targets to show how they intend to deal with levels of vacancy.
My Department continues to develop and review policy measures with the aim of encouraging and enabling privately-owned vacant homes to be brought back into use, whether for use as social housing or to the private rented market. These schemes include the Repair and Leasing Scheme, the Buy and Renew Scheme, the Housing Agency's active engagement with banks and investment companies to use its €70 million revolving Acquisitions Fund to acquire some 1,600 units over the period to 2020 for social housing use, as well as ongoing engagement between the Housing Agency, local authorities and NAMA to identify properties that may be potentially available for social housing.
