It is not financially viable to fix up derelict houses in Ireland without grants, a new study has claimed.
According to new research by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI), new incentives are needed to fix the problem of dereliction and vacancy in Ireland amid the ongoing housing crisis.
The SCSI – which specialises in property matters – has claimed that only a quarter of empty buildings in Ireland are considered “financially viable” without grants, leading to large numbers of buildings being left empty and disused around the country.
The study defines “financially viable” as when the repaired building’s market value is greater than its starting value, plus the cost of renovating it.
Last July the government started a new grant scheme to revamp vacant houses in towns and villages called the Croí Cónaithe. In November this was expanded to cities and other rural regions. Since the scheme’s rollout, around 1,250 applications have been made to avail of the grant.
This grant offers up to €30,000 to restore a vacant house to live in as their home, and if the house is derelict, then this grant could be as high as 50,000.
However, according to the study, if the current grants available to refurbish buildings were increased from €50,000 to €100,000, the number of derelict properties that would be financially viable to refurbish would double almost immediately.
The study examined 20 vacant and derelict properties from around Ireland, in Dublin, Cork, and Limerick. It found that only 5 of them – one quarter – were financially worth renovating without significant grants.
When the current grants were applied, only one additional property would be viable, the study claimed.
The research found that nearly 90% of the cost of renovating a home was in “hard costs” such as plumbing, extensions, heating, doors and windows.
According to one of the report’s authors, Lisa Rocca, the research shows that Ireland is not providing sufficient incentives to do up such properties.
“It’s clear current incentives and supports in place are not at a satisfactory level to make a meaningful difference to the current levels of vacant stock,” she said.
“We have 13 residential-type properties among our case studies and in a scenario where the Croí Cónaithe grant is increased to €100,000, the number which becomes viable doubles to eight, while two more are on the cusp of becoming viable, so it’s clear increasing the grants would have a major impact with regard to financial viability.”