Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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983. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to establish a scheme whereby local authorities acquire, by agreement or by compulsory purchase, and repair vacant houses for allocation to approved housing applicants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12823/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Through a number of social housing funding programmes, local authorities are supported by my Department to purchase and renovate vacant/derelict properties to be upgraded as new, value-for-money social homes.

The Buy & Renew Scheme allows local authorities to acquire and refurbish such properties and since it was introduced in 2016, in excess of 950 properties have been delivered under this arrangement, as new social homes.

The Social Housing Investment Programme/SHIP which is the main capital programme that supports local authorities in the development of new social housing, also provides them with full funding to acquire and renew/re-model existing vacant/derelict properties in need of more substantial capital investment, with a view to the delivery of new social homes. This acquisition can be either by agreement or by CPO and it creates opportunities for local authorities to respond to more significant dereliction in town centres.

Furthermore through the Capital Assistance Scheme/CAS, AHBs are supported to undertake similar work on vacant/derelict properties to deliver new social homes.

I am pleased to see an increasing number of local authorities use these opportunities and there is no cap or restriction on the extent to which this approach may be used by local authorities or AHBs, other than the individual projects being reasonable value for money. My Department covers 100% of the development costs for new social homes whether they are the renewal of existing buildings including former commercial premises, or new build projects.

Tipperary County Council is one of many local authorities that utilises this approach to tackle vacancy/dereliction and deliver new social homes and further information on individual projects within their social housing delivery pipelines will be available directly from the local authorities.

As well as the permanent acquisition of vacant properties by local authorities and AHBs, my Department also provides the Repair and Leasing scheme/RLS which allows a local authority or AHB to provide a loan of up to €80,000 per unit to a property owner to bring a vacant property up to residential tenancy standards. Where a vacant property is renovated to provide more than one home, a loan of €80,000 is available per unit provided. The refurbished units are then leased to the local authority or an AHB for between 5 and 25 years. The interest free loan is recouped by way of an offset from the lease payment over an agreed term.

My Department's broader efforts to tackle vacancy and make efficient use of existing housing stock can be seen in the Vacant Homes Action Plan Progress Report launched in April 2024, which highlights the key measures that have been undertaken across all relevant Government departments to support this work - it is available on my Department's website at the following link: gov - Vacant Homes Action Plan 2023-2026 (www.gov.ie).

A key initiative of the Vacant Homes Action Plan was the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant to refurbish vacant and derelict properties. Uptake of the grant has increased exponentially across 2024 and by the end of December, over 11,300 applications had been received, with over 7,700 approved and 1,449 grants paid out.