Number of empty local authority homes remains static according to watchdog

More than 3 per cent of all homes owned by city and county councils around Ireland were vacant at the end of last year, according to a new report by the local authority watchdog.

Figures published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) show that 4,448 local authority dwellings were unoccupied last December out of a total housing stock of 141,483 owned by councils – a vacancy rate of 3.2 per cent which was effectively unchanged from the previous year.

The annual review by the NOAC of the performance of the country’s 31 local authorities showed the number of homeless adults living in emergency accommodation rose by more than 9 per cent over the same period.

The organisation also revealed that the average time taken to re-let council homes has been increasing steadily since 2018 and averaged almost eight months in 2021.

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The report showed vacancy rates in council housing exceeded 7 per cent in Longford and Galway County – over twice the national rate.

Above-average vacancy rates were also found in Cork County (5.3 per cent), Cavan (4.7 per cent) and Cork City (4.4 per cent) with more than 850 council homes vacant across Cork city and county.

In Dublin where the country’s housing crisis is most acute, the vacancy rate ranged from 1 per cent in South Dublin to 2.8 per cent in the administrative area covered by Dublin City Council.

Across the four local authority areas in Dublin city and county there were almost 1,000 council-owned homes without a tenant in situ, including almost 700 homes in the area under the control of Dublin City Council.

More than 220 council homes were also vacant in Limerick while just under 200 homes were vacant in Wexford, Wicklow and Galway County.

The lowest vacancy rate in the Republic was recorded by Monaghan County Council where just 0.8 per cent of its housing was unoccupied last December.

NOAC said that while it understood there was always a level of turnover of council-owned rental properties, it stressed that “every effort should be made by local authorities to ensure the stock is utilised to the greatest extent possible to meet the demand and needs of applicants on the housing waiting list.”

The latest figures show the total stock of council housing rose by almost 2 per cent last year through the net addition of about 2,600 properties including 392 in Dublin city (+1.6 per cent), 387 in Cork county (+5.3 per cent) and 154 in Kildare (+3.2 per cent).

At the other end of the scale, South Dublin County Council had a net increase of just one dwelling to its housing stock last year to bring its total to 9,576.

Local authorities built or acquired an additional 3,045 homes in 2021 but a further 367 were sold and 79 were demolished.

It was the lowest annual net increase in recent years, with the peak achieved in 2019 when 5,619 new council-owned dwellings were added. Construction activity due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The average amount spent on getting a council dwelling ready for a new tenant, meanwhile, ranged from about €7,400 in Tipperary to almost €50,000 in Offaly with an average of €19,653.