Vacant properties and above-the-shop units could provide an answer to the housing crisis, according to the Hardware Association of Ireland.
It estimates that there are at least 20,000 vacant units of this type ready for transformation.
The association is the representative body for Irish hardware and DIY retailers, builders’ merchants, distributers and manufacturers.
It represents over 400 members nationwide and 26,000 staff in the sector.
It carried out a survey recently of members and local auctioneers and found that the majority believe more incentives are needed to encourage these types of property sales.
“When we spoke to the property owners to find out what were the constraints to them doing something with properties, by and large, there were financial constraints of one form or another,” said CEO of the Hardware Association of Ireland Martin Markey.
“So one thing we think should happen is a waiver on capital gains tax for a number of years, which would allow a good few thousand of these properties to come back onto the marketplace and be bought by people who actually want to do something with them,” he added.
“We’d also like to see an extension of the vacant homes grant to above-the-shop properties,” he added.
While the association’s members will ultimately benefit from building renovations, it says the move goes much further than that.
Mr Markey said the potential is huge and by introducing targeted tax incentives and streamlining regulations, it will unlock the potential of these spaces, creating much needed homes and boosting local economies.
“We estimate there are 20,000 units. That’s a significant amount of units and we are in a housing crisis and that would go a significant amount of way to addressing some of the issues we have.
“It doesn’t have the same impediments that, for example, a new build has. It doesn’t involve the tie up in terms of planning and all that type of thing, because these houses are already there.
“And there’s a huge social benefit as well to getting people back to living in our towns and villages and cities.”
Bid to increase Portlaoise town centre population
In Portlaoise, Co Laois, the local authority identified in recent years a declining population in the town centre and has been working to turn that around.
“In 2017 we compiled a strategy for Portlaoise for a better town centre and one of the key aims of that was trying to get new people, new population in to live in the town,” said Angela McEvoy, Director of Services over Planning, Regeneration and Economic Development at Laois County Council.
“We had experienced a big population decline in relation to the town centre and so a lot of the ambition was about bringing back about 2,500 people into the town centre,” she said.
“We have achieved a lot to date and there are a lot of key sites that were institutions that have been converted and we now have over 250 units on all of those sites, within a two-minute walk of the railway station in the town,” she explained.
“A lot of our strategies have an ambition to bring people back into the town centre because living in a town centre has a lot of advantages.
“It creates a vibrant town and obviously has a huge impact on shops and business.”
Ms McEvoy is keen to stress that over the shop units work well as they ensure that commercial viability of a town is also protected.
“We do want to keep a certain amount of commercial vitality within our town centre too so the living over-the-shop is probably the best way to go, rather than converting the whole unit into a residential residence,” she said.
Over the last number of years significant work has taken place in regenerating a number of the main towns across Laois and the vacant refurbishment grants have helped.
“Over the past number of years, we’ve identified over 1100 vacant buildings, 700 of which are derelict,” explained Town Regeneration Officer with Laois County Council Denise Rainey.
“The activation programme is about engaging with the owners of these buildings to try and bring them back into use,” she said.
“Now a useful tool has been the Government’s vacant refurbishment grants and in Portlaoise for example we have processed over 300 applications, and we’ve paid out over €3.8 million in funding,” she said.
“That has resulted in a number of properties leaving the activation programme which is what it’s all about,” she said.
Article Source – Tax waivers, grants could bring vacant properties into use, says group – RTE
