13 Percent of Irish Housing Stock is Vacant

Mar 17, 2017

While St. Patrick is celebrated for driving the snakes out of Ireland, he might have been perplexed at fixing the nation’s current housing crisis: driving people into empty residences.

According to a report from the Irish news site TheJournal.ie, there are 198,358 homes lying empty in Ireland, or 13 percent of the nation’s total housing stock. A new research report by the Simon Community, an Irish homeless service, noted the wild imbalance between vacant residences and people forced to live in emergency accommodations: in the capital city of Dublin, for example, there are 3,247 people in emergency accommodation but 35,293 empty housing units.

Last month, Ireland’s Housing Minister Simon Coveney announced a pilot program in Waterford and Carlow to identify vacant properties and secure them for social housing. To date, 59 formerly vacant properties are being processed to accommodate those in need of housing.

“Property owners see the opportunity the scheme presents for them—upfront financing of the cost of repairs—in fact they need not even get involved in arranging the works, and a secure and reliable income from regular rental payments, without having to take on landlord responsibilities,” said Coveney.

About the author

Phil Hall

Link copied

Published

Mar 17, 2017

C-Suite Strategies

Better Says It Fired Vishal Garg After He Moves To Oust Board

Founder claims majority shareholder support; company blames him for its delayed 10-Q and raises possible securities-law concerns

Better Home & Finance Holding Company said Friday that it terminated founder Vishal Garg as CEO and accused him of delaying the company’s quarterly filing, sharply escalating a dispute over control of the mortgage lender one day after Garg demanded that five directors re...

Analysis and Data

Figure Says Partners More Than Doubled HELOC Volume On Its Platform

Consumer loan marketplace volume reached $4.3 billion as Figure Connect drove more production off the company’s balance sheet and helped lift adjusted margins to a record 55%

Figure Technology Solutions said mortgage partners using its platform generated substantially more home equity lending volume than their previous production would have predicted, adding an originator-level measure to a quarter marked by rapid marketplace growth and record pr...