{"id":590820,"date":"2026-08-12T08:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T08:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/590820\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T08:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T08:58:20","slug":"over-800-vacant-cork-properties-brought-back-into-use-by-grants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/590820\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 800 vacant Cork properties brought back into use by grants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Since 2022, Cork\u2019s county and city councils have collectively paid out over \u20ac40m to bring more 801 <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.echolive.ie\/corknews\/arid-41879159.html\"> vacant properties <\/a>back into use, under the Government\u2019s Cro\u00ed C\u00f3naithe scheme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Cro\u00ed C\u00f3naithe vacant property refurbishment grant scheme was introduced by the Department of Housing in July of 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Initially, the scheme applied to eligible vacant properties located in towns and villages, but it was expanded in November 2022 to include cities and all rural areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A further significant expansion took effect in May 2023, when eligibility was extended to properties built up to, and including, 2007.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The scheme was also broadened to include properties intended for rental, while grant levels increased to \u20ac50,000 for a vacant property, with an additional derelict property top-up of up to \u20ac20,000, bringing the maximum available grant to \u20ac70,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Approved<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Since the launch of the scheme, Cork\u2019s two local authorities have approved between them 1,663 grant applications, paying out cumulatively \u20ac40.5m, resulting in 801 homes being brought back into use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Since July 2022, Cork County Council has approved 1,152 applications and grant funding totalling \u20ac27.4m has been paid, resulting in 491 properties being brought back into use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Over the same period, Cork City Council approved 511 applications, paying out \u20ac13m, with 320 homes returned to use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Cork County Council issued grants to 43% of applicants, while the city council paid out on 63%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), there are more than 8,500 vacant homes across Cork city and county.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Cork-based anti-dereliction campaigner Jude Sherry said she welcomed the news of 801 coming back into use, but said more needed to be done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cGiven the ever-worsening housing emergency, we need to move far quicker,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            \u201cFrom feedback we have received from applicants, a few tweaks to the process would make a big difference, and one such improvement might include staged payments.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe are also concerned that the grants might be incentivising property owners to leave the properties vacant for two years to access the funding.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ms Sherry added that she was also concerned that some properties which have been refurbished utilising government grants are being used for short-term lets, in breach of the conditions around those schemes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since 2022, Cork\u2019s county and city councils have collectively paid out over \u20ac40m to bring more 801 vacant&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[79,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-590820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}