Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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213. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of housing units that have been tenanted in 2012 and 2013 from the 4,000 units identified by National Asset Management Agency in 2011 as suitable for social housing; and the targets for further tenanting from these units for the remainder of 2013 and for 2014. [54870/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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NAMA continues to work closely with my Department, and with the Housing Agency, local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies in relation to the delivery of social housing. To date, NAMA has identified almost 4,370 residential properties, controlled by its debtors and receivers, under this initiative as being potentially available for social housing. Demand has been confirmed by the local authorities for just under 1,980 of these properties with a further 176 properties currently being evaluated, bringing the total that may be deemed potentially suitable to just over 2,150. The local authorities have confirmed that of the properties identified, 1,413 are considered unsuitable by reference to sustainable planning and housing policy or are located in areas with no demand. More than 800 other properties have been sold or privately let by their owners or receivers since they were identified by NAMA. There is considerable complexity in dealing with multiple property transfers with varying degrees of difficulty attached to them. In the main, this is due to the complexities of getting agreement from multiple parties operating within an environment subject to a range of legal and financial constraints.

Within this context, significant progress has been made with 179 properties delivered from the NAMA portfolio for social housing purposes by the end of 2012. By end November, 2013, that number had increased to 369 properties delivered, with contracts signed in respect of a further 104 properties. This brings the overall total number of residential properties completed or committed to social housing at that point to 4 73 properties. It continue s to be my Department's objective to maximise the delivery of social housing using al l resources available, and I expect considerable further progress will be made in delivery of units for social housing from the NAMA portfolio in 2014. Once the agreements are signed and the units are made available for social housing the allocation or tenanting of such units is a matter for the local authorities in the areas in which they are located. My Department does not hold data in relation to the tenanting of properties.

The next quarterly updates in relation to the delivery of NAMA sourced units will be available at .