Greater than 3 per cent of all houses owned by metropolis and county councils round Eire have been vacant on the finish of final 12 months, in accordance with a brand new report by the native authority watchdog.
Figures printed by the Nationwide Oversight and Audit Fee (NOAC) present that 4,448 native authority dwellings have been unoccupied final December out of a complete housing inventory of 141,483 owned by councils – a emptiness charge of three.2 per cent which was successfully unchanged from the earlier 12 months.
The annual evaluate by the NOAC of the efficiency of the nation’s 31 native authorities confirmed the variety of homeless adults dwelling in emergency lodging rose by greater than 9 per cent over the identical interval.
The organisation additionally revealed that the common time taken to re-let council houses has been growing steadily since 2018 and averaged nearly eight months in 2021.
The report confirmed emptiness charges in council housing exceeded 7 per cent in Longford and Galway County – over twice the nationwide charge.
Above-average emptiness charges have been additionally present in Cork County (5.3 per cent), Cavan (4.7 per cent) and Cork Metropolis (4.4 per cent) with greater than 850 council houses vacant throughout Cork metropolis and county.
In Dublin the place the nation’s housing disaster is most acute, the emptiness charge ranged from 1 per cent in South Dublin to 2.8 per cent within the administrative space lined by Dublin Metropolis Council.
Throughout the 4 native authority areas in Dublin metropolis and county there have been nearly 1,000 council-owned houses and not using a tenant in situ, together with nearly 700 houses within the space below the management of Dublin Metropolis Council.
Greater than 220 council houses have been additionally vacant in Limerick whereas slightly below 200 houses have been vacant in Wexford, Wicklow and Galway County.
The bottom emptiness charge within the Republic was recorded by Monaghan County Council the place simply 0.8 per cent of its housing was unoccupied final December.
NOAC mentioned that whereas it understood there was all the time a degree of turnover of council-owned rental properties, it burdened that “each effort needs to be made by native authorities to make sure the inventory is utilised to the best extent doable to fulfill the demand and desires of candidates on the housing ready checklist.”
The newest figures present the full inventory of council housing rose by nearly 2 per cent final 12 months via the online addition of about 2,600 properties together with 392 in Dublin metropolis (+1.6 per cent), 387 in Cork county (+5.3 per cent) and 154 in Kildare (+3.2 per cent).
On the different finish of the dimensions, South Dublin County Council had a internet enhance of only one dwelling to its housing inventory final 12 months to convey its complete to 9,576.
Native authorities constructed or acquired a further 3,045 houses in 2021 however an extra 367 have been offered and 79 have been demolished.
It was the bottom annual internet enhance in recent times, with the height achieved in 2019 when 5,619 new council-owned dwellings have been added. Building exercise as a result of Covid-19 pandemic.
The common quantity spent on getting a council dwelling prepared for a brand new tenant, in the meantime, ranged from about €7,400 in Tipperary to nearly €50,000 in Offaly with a mean of €19,653.