A national database of empty homes is to be established amid confusion over the true number of vacant houses across the country.
The Central Statistics Office said that 183,312 homes were empty following the census in June last year. A separate report from Geodirectory, a joint venture between An Post and Ordnance Survey Ireland, has calculated that the real figure is 96,243.
The idea for the project comes from Mayo county council, which aims to use the register to bring properties back into use and to ease the chronic undersupply of new homes.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland programme, Tom Gilligan, the council’s director of services, said the database would put existing housing stock to better use.
“We recognised that tackling vacant homes can have a very significant contribution to address the housing need,” he said.
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Mr Gilligan said the council was working with the data protection commissioner to address any concerns around the privacy rights of property owners. The public will have access to the site. Average house prices have increased by €24,000 over the past year and rents have surpassed their pre-crash peak, according to Daft.ie, the property website.
A 3 per cent annual levy on unused land will come into force in 2019 but the Peter McVerry Trust, a homelessness charity, has emphasised that a tax on vacant houses is also needed.
Ireland’s lowest vacancy rate is in Dublin at 0.89 per cent of the city’s housing stock. Leitrim has the highest level with 16.1 per cent.
The average rate of vacancy across the country is 4.9 per cent, according to Geodirectory. Census figures for unoccupied properties were inflated by homes that were empty because they were up for sale or rent, or where owners were in a nursing home, in hospital or staying with relatives.
House prices have risen, in part because of a shortage of new homes. Completions hit a high of 93,419 in 2007 but collapsed to a low of 8,488 in 2012.
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Eoghan Murphy, the housing minister, has made rapid build homes one of the main pillars of his plan to address homelessness. These are predominantly factory-built units made in modular form. A rapid build site of 61 social housing units in south Dublin has been criticised for being too slow. It will have to wait 12 months for planning permission before construction begins.
Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman, described the delay as unacceptable. “In February, councillors passed planning permission for 61 rapid build family homes in St Cuthbert’s Park, Clondalkin,” he said. “Yet seven months on and the council has not yet published the tender documents. This means that no contract has yet to be awarded, no start date has been agreed and crucially no date for tenanting has been agreed.”