547 homes have been brought back into use in Cork, under local authority Cork County Council, supported by €30.662m since the launch of the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant – the third highest figure nationwide.
In total, the scheme has now helped bring 7,162 vacant and derelict properties back into use, backed by over €396 million in grant funding. Demand also remains strong, with almost 20,000 applications received and more than 15,000 approvals granted since the launch of the scheme in 2022.
1,345 application have been approved to date from the 1,712 applications received by Cork County Council, with 90 applications rejected.
The local authorities with the highest number of restored homes under the scheme since its launch are Donegal County Council, where 600 homes brought back into use supported by €34.411m, and Dublin City Council, with 554 homes brought back into use (€26.829m), followed by Cork County Council.
Cork City Council received 705 applications in total, 567 of which were approved, with 9 rejections – €14,562,936 was used to support these applications.
There has been strong uptake also in Tipperary, with the local authority issuing 368 grants on completion of work (over €20.4m). Here, a total of 950 applications have been received to date, 758 of which have been approved, with 37 rejected.
Limerick City and County Council have received a total of 897 applications since the scheme’s inception, with 311 grants issued to a value of €17,146,018; 670 applications have been approved, with just 17 rejected.
€7,775,473 in grant funding has been released to applicants to Waterford City and County Council for 144 completions, with 16 applications refused and 326 approved, from a total of 492 applications.
In the third quarter of this year, the scheme maintained its strong performance supporting the refurbishment of 809 vacant and derelict homes between July and September.
ABOVE THE SHOP GRANT
The Vacant Above the Shop Grant continued to gain traction in Q3, with 30 additional applications bringing the total submitted since the scheme’s launch earlier this year to 78. 5 of these were to Cork County Council, 2 to Tipperary County Council, and 1 each to Limerick City and County Council and Cork City Council. The numbers reflect increasing interest in town-centre living and the reuse of vacant upper-floor space as a means of expanding housing supply.
Commenting on the latest figures on Monday as he responded to the publication of his Department’s Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant statistics for Q3 2026, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne, TD said that dereliction is something this Government ‘will not tolerate’, noting that it was ‘particularly encouraging to see continued momentum in Vacant Above the Shop applications, which will play a vital role to play in regenerating our towns and villages while providing additional homes in well-serviced locations.’
