AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
Empty properties in a streetscape can look like a broken tooth in a smile. Sad and unattractive, they sit there empty while levies on their owners mount and the housing crisis grows. On the other hand, they can represent an opportunity for those in search of a bargain opportunity to get on the property ladder.
Vacant and derelict properties were in the news last week when the Government announced new powers to collect a 7% tax on the current value of the property, to be collected by the Revenue Commissioners from 2028. Previously the levy was assessed and intended to be gathered by local authorities, but more than a third of the amount has not been collected.
For anyone addicted – like me – to watching the Cheap Irish Homes TV programme, where presenter Maggie Molloy tracks down bargain doer-uppers and modestly priced cottages or houses for prospective owners, the vacant and derelict homes sites can be like a sweet shop. There are around 80,000 vacant residential houses and 20,000 derelict residences listed nationwide (an underestimate), and you can notify your local council of unlisted, unloved properties if you have your eye on one.
The icing on the cake, if you acquire a forgotten home, is that there are grants available of up to €50,000 to refurbish vacant homes and up to €70,000 for derelict properties. To be on the vacant list, properties must be empty for over two years and have been built before 2008 (the year the financial crash killed off Celtic Tiger developments).
Happily, more than 7,000 vacant and derelict properties have been restored to use since the refurbishment scheme was introduced in 2022. The bad news, as far as the Government goes, is that there is €50 million in unpaid levies due from owners. Kilkenny County lists 49 derelict properties ranging from homes in towns to farm and school houses, and there is even a former railway station. There are more than 3,000 vacant properties, with more than 800 of them empty for a long time.
You rarely find these doer-uppers listed by estate agents. The place to look is on the vacant and derelict sections on county council websites or on dedicated websites like derelictproperties.ie or formerglory.ie if you fancy a period property. The follow-up trail may involve writing to the owner to see if they are prepared to sell, checking eligibility for grants and having surveys done if proceeding. And the tax owed by the owner, often amounting to tens of thousands? The previous owner is liable, which may be a disincentive to sell.
“Despite the housing crisis there are thousands of vacant and derelict properties across our towns and villages as well as rural areas,” says Martin Moseley of Canice Conservation Architects, Kilkenny. “Taking on the refurbishment of a vacant or derelict building may seem daunting to some, however bringing an older property back to life can be a hugely rewarding experience and can have a wider positive impact on the local community. In sustainability terms the saying goes that the greenest building is the one that already exists.
“A Conservation Architect can provide advice in relation to grants, planning & building control requirements and appropriate work,” he says.
Listed heritage properties may languish unloved, needing investment and imagination so that they can find a new use. Examples in Co. Kilkenny include the 1839 Ormonde Almshouse, formerly known as the Poor House in Kilkenny, and the former RIC barracks in Gowran.
The potential offered by these kind of finds can be exciting; there are advantages like paying a lower price, fewer competing buyers and the possibility of greatly increasing the value of a property. But these projects aren’t for the faint-hearted — there are all kinds of challenges, difficulty in obtaining finance, structural problems, delays, planning hitches, plus the fact that the money has to be spent on the property before you can avail of a grant. There should be ways to make the process of rescuing a property smoother.
As part of the change under the Government’s Delivering Homes and Building Communities Plan, the idea is to speed up the collection and processing of unloved homes and buildings. County councils will still identify vacant and derelict properties, which will be on the national register. But the evidence of my eyes driving around the country suggests that only a fraction of those that could be available are registered, especially in the West. Maybe County Councils could do with help in that regard.
You never know, you might find yourself a bargain doer-upper.
