Galway City Tribune – Galway City Council is in the process of appointing a ‘Vacant Homes Officer’ who will oversee empty properties being brought back into the housing stock.
He said that the CSO had calculated that there were 3,800 empty homes in the city, during the last census – an empty home is one in which a census enumerator fails on three occasions to deliver a form.
He said that the figures obtained by the Geo Directory were more realistic, however, and refers to properties in which a postman has failed to deliver a letter in over a year.
“It says there are 285 vacant properties in the city – we inspected 200 of those ourselves.
“130 are occupied and, of the remaining 70, there is a significant number in probate, in family wills, in fair deals, or going through the planning process. The actual number is quite small, I know the CSO at national level are making preparations for the 2021 census, and how it calculates vacant properties is being looked at.
“When our vacant homes officer is in place, we will be revisiting this. Our primary goal is to work with initiatives to get vacant homes back into housing stock, including the possibility of doing vesting orders of derelict sites rather than CPOs.”
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