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BOARDED-UP HOUSES and crumbling buildings are a common feature of towns and cities across Ireland.
Derelict buildings contribute significantly to Ireland’s housing crisis, and bringing them back into use is one of the Government’s strategies for addressing social housing shortfalls and getting more homes on the market.
Last month, the compulsory purchase order (CPO) process commenced for just two properties in two council areas.
Under laws introduced in 1990, every local council keeps a Derelict Sites Register to encourage owners to bring derelict houses and land into use through the imposition of an annual levy of 7% of the property’s market value, which applies until the site is no longer derelict.
When someone objects to a local authority’s attempt to obtain a property via the CPO process, the council can make an application to An Coimisiún Pleanála to do so.
The Housing Act also allows local authorities to acquire vacant homes via CPO, which they also must apply to do via the commission.
The process is similar to making a planning application, and the board weighs up submissions from the council and the owner of the land before deciding whether a site can be subject to a CPO.
The number of properties that councils try to CPO via the commission every month is relatively small – records show that just 44 applications were made via the Compulsory Housing Acquisition Act in the whole of 2024.
From next year, the current Derelict Site Levy will be replaced by a new tax to be collected by Revenue, as opposed to local councils, and those who fail to pay tax on their vacant land could end up on the Tax Defaulters’ list in future.
The Journal has been keeping track of the vacant and derelict properties that councils have sought to acquire in previous months.
Last month, two local authorities – Monaghan County Council and Cork City Council – each applied to the commission to CPO one property.
On 6 October, Cork City Council applied to CPO a derelict end-of-terrace property at St Patrick’s Terrace, just off the Lower Glanmire Road in the city’s Victorian quarter.
A report submitted by the council to the commission as part of its application shows that the house is owned by a company called Connecticut Real Estate Limited
In October 2024, Connecticut Real Estate told the council that it had started to redevelop the property but had to pause works while a structural survey was carried out; it said it intended to place the property on the rental market once it was refurbished.
The council sought the results of the survey, which it received in November last year.
The survey said the property required works that would take six months from February 2025, and that Connecticut Real Estate was arranging to clear overgrowth; an accompanying letter asked the council to hold off its CPO to allow these works to happen.
The council agreed to hold off on a CPO, but the works did not commence by February; in April, Connecticut Real Estate told the council this was because it had not been able to get funding in time, though it said it had found a backer at that stage.
By June, however, the council noted that the property was “still derelict” and hadn’t been visited “for some time”.
After the council asked Connecticut Real Estate why works hadn’t been commenced, the company said it was still trying to secure finance to refurbish the property, and that the works would be completed by January 2026.
The council subsequently applied to the commission to CPO the property, with a decision due in January 2026.
On 1 October, Monaghan County Council sought permission to CPO a derelict and overgrown property at Muckno Street in Castleblayney under the Compulsory Acqusition Derelict Site Act.
The single-storey property is located on 0.76 hectares of land, and was first inspected by the council in April 2024.
It is part-owned by a receiver based in Carlingford, Co Louth and another man with an address in Carlingford, and both have been the registered owners since July 2009.
According to a report by the council, the house appears to have been burned out a long time ago and has “a neglected, unsightly and objectionable appearance from the public road and the surrounding area”.
The property was placed on the derelict sites register and the council attempted to contact the owners before seeking to CPO the site.
In a submission to An Comisiún Pleanála dated 15 October 2025, an architect firm named another man as the owner of the property and said he had not received formal notice of dereliction, in part because he is resident in Northern Ireland.
The letter claimed that the development of the property has been curtailed for several reasons since 2006, largely because of sewage works that have been carried out by the council in the time since.
The firm also said that the property is covered by Japanese knotweed, which is expensive and arduous to eradicate, and that the property has also been identified as being on a flood plain.
It said the owner of the property has tried to sell the property but has been unable to do so because of these issues.
The case is due to be decided by March of next year.
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