1,800 local housing dwellings lie vacant in major cities

ALMOST 1,800 local authority dwellings lie vacant in the main urban centres of the State, as the number of households on the housing waiting list reaches 100,000.

Figures obtained by The Irish Timesfrom the four Dublin local authorities, as well as from Cork city, Galway city and Limerick city show that vacancy rates vary from 1.3 per cent in Fingal to 13 per cent in Limerick.

There are also marked variations in the time authorities take to turn vacated homes around for reletting, from six weeks in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown to 31.5 weeks in Cork city.

The number of housing maintenance staff – who carry out the works to dwellings to get them ready for reletting – has fallen across all authorities over the past three years.

Bob Jordan, director of the housing charity Threshold, said the findings underlined the need for the Department of the Environment to set national limits on how many social housing units should lie empty at any one time.

“There should also be targets for how long is acceptable for a house to stay vacant.”

He said the recent announcement that Nama would make 2,000 units of housing available for social housing was “meaningless when almost 2,000 units of social housing are lying empty”.

Dublin City Council has the highest number of vacant dwellings, at 592, out of a total stock of 24,539 units of housing (2.4 per cent vacancy).

Cork City Council has 431 vacant dwellings out of total stock of 8,755 (4.31 per cent vacancy).

Limerick City Council has 378 vacant dwellings out of a total stock of 2.800 (13.5 per cent).

There are 115 vacant dwellings in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown where the council has 4,400 dwellings (2.61 per cent vacancy) and 98 in South Dublin County where the council has 1,630 dwellings (6 per cent vacancy rate).

In Galway city there are 71 vacant dwellings out of a total stock of 2,799 (2.53 per cent) and Fingal has 59 vacant dwellings out of a stock of 4,465 (1.32 per cent vacancy).

A spokeswoman for Limerick City Council, which has the highest vacancy rate, pointed out 269 of its 378 vacant dwellings are in regeneration areas and awaiting demolition.

The average time to refurbish a house for reletting in Dublin City is 25.6 weeks.

In Fingal it is 23 weeks and in South Dublin County it is 14.5 weeks.

Galway city has given an average turnaround time of two to five months, while Limerick city is reletting in an average of eight weeks and Dún Laoghaire 6½ weeks.

The numbers of housing maintenance staff in all councils has fallen steadily over the past three years.

In Dublin city the number has fallen from 773 in 2008 to a projected 640 by the end of next year. In Fingal numbers have fallen from 31 to 28.

In Cork city numbers have fallen from 169 in 2008 to 161 now. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown housing maintenance staff numbers are down from 52 in 2009 to 42 this year; in South Dublin County they are down from 55 to 46 since 2009 and in Galway from 36 down to 33.