Limerick fast becoming worst place in Ireland to own derelict property
Na Co Abbeyfeale, Estate, Housing Feile Limerick Cois
Limerick is fast becoming the worst place in Ireland to own a derelict property.
Little wonder, when you consider the war Limerick City and County Council (LCCC) has been waging on dereliction.
It has completed more than 4,200 inspections of derelict and vacant properties and served more than 1,500 statutory notices under the Derelict Sites Act.
It now conducts over 100 derelict and vacant property inspections every month and has more than 410 properties on its Derelict Sites Register, up from 388 last November.
This is understood to be the highest number of any local authority in the country.
Every few months, the number of properties it is planning to take possession of creeps higher than the last announcement.
Added to that, the council says it is also using its powers under derelict sites legislation to levy derelict properties annually at 7% of their market value.
“You really don’t want to own a derelict property in Limerick,” Bridie Collins, a Fianna Fáil city and county councillor in the Municipal District of Adare-Rathkeale, said.
“Limerick Council is very quick to react and they make sure due process will be brought to bear very quickly.
“It’s a good thing.”
She added: “When I am up and down the road to Donegal, I can see dereliction all over the place and I wonder why they aren’t following the same path that Limerick is on.”
Two years ago in a series on vacancy and dereliction, the featured three Limerick towns — Abbeyfeale, Rathkeale and Bruff.
All of them were suffering from one degree or another of dereliction and vacancy.
The worst example of dereliction in any of the three towns was in Rathkeale.
Despite the council’s obvious success in tackling dereliction elsewhere in the county, its handling of a derelict estate it actually owns just outside the town has been branded a “effing disgrace”.
This is the Ballywilliam Close ghost estate in Rathkeale the visited two years ago in its focus on dereliction across the country.
The site of some 33 built or half-built houses has been derelict for around 10 years and was finally compulsorily acquired by the council in October 2021.
This was despite strong opposition from Traveller families who owned individual sites on the estate.
An Bord Pleanála approved the application to compulsory purchase order (CPO) each individual site on the estate under the Derelict Sites Act.
The CPOs came about two years after the collapse of a deal in 2019 between the council and families that would have seen the council taking the houses on a long-term lease.
The housing estate, partially constructed between 12 and 17 years ago, consists mostly of partly completed detached and semi-detached houses.
It was noted in inspections that trees were even growing inside several of the incomplete houses and many structures were in a dangerous condition.
The council, which has said it received many complaints about the estate, has said it used powers under the Derelict Sites Act because all reasonable alternatives had been exhausted.
An Bord Pleanála ruled that the site detracted from the amenity, character, and appearance of neighbouring properties, and its acquisition by the council was necessary to render it non-derelict.
Municipal District of Adare-Rathkeale leas-chathaoirleach Stephen Keary doesn’t mince his words when it comes to talking about the estate.
“It’s an effing disgrace and an utter travesty what has been going on there and the council should be absolutely ashamed of itself,” he said.
“The council has owned that estate since they compulsorily acquired it and it is just sitting there.
“We do not know what they are going to do with it.
“The council got an engineer to look at the buildings and he condemned them, but we have suggested the council just give the estate to someone in exchange for them doing it up, but nothing has happened that we can see.
“To say it is a mess or a disgrace would be a complete understatement.
“It is wrong on so many fronts and is totally at odds with how else the council is dealing with dereliction across the county.
“In fairness to the council, it is a complex and unique case, partly because there has not been one main principal person to negotiate with over the years.
“But even still, they have had the site for nearly two years, it’s still derelict and we can see no end in sight for this monstrosity, and we are all just sick of it.”
For its part, the council says that it is dealing with “complex” matters on the estate.
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A spokesperson said: “It is a complex site due to 33 individual properties all at different stages of completion.
“Since the properties were vested into the name of the council, LCCC has spent considerable funds cleaning the site, fencing, and securing the site and removing stray horses.
“The process of clearing Japanese Knotweed on site is ongoing.
“Japanese Knotweed limits the works that can be done.
“LCCC received claims for compensation from the 33 individual previous property owners in February 2022.
“The arbitration case is ongoing and a date for an Arbitration hearing is awaited.”
Meanwhile, Abbeyfeale certainly had quite a few dereliction and vacancy issues of its own when we visited two years ago.
Some of the worst examples could be found on Colbert Terrace, where planks of wood placed at 45 degree angles against the front of some of the buildings appeared to be the only thing stopping them from collapsing.
But fast forward to today, some buildings have since been compulsorily purchased by the council and demolished.
The owners of more houses in the area are currently being taken through the CPO process and there are plans to either demolish or renovate them.
One of two derelict buildings on nearby New St are also expected to be facing being demolished to make way for a widening of Colbert St.
One of the biggest issues around dereliction or vacancy has also been the town’s former Convent of Mercy.
For years there have been calls for its owners, the Limerick-Clare Education and Training Board, to make the building safe.
About five years ago, the Abbeyfeale Community Council had unsuccessfully applied for €2m funding so they could buy the building and use it for the benefit of the community.
Among the calls made over the years was that it should be delisted as a protected structure to make it easier to renovate and open it up.
However, according to the chair Maurice O’Connell, the building was recently sold — which the Limerick-Clare Education and Training Board confirmed to the .
“My understanding is that a buyer has come forward and is in the process of doing a deal with the owners,” Mr O’Connell said.
“That said, whoever buys it will need to have approximately €5m to renovate it because that is what it has been costed at.
“The new owners would also have to deal with a conservation officer because of the convent’s listed status.”
While he is animated about the prospect of the convent finally being bought and opening up, he is far more excited about plans for the town.
Already seeing a bounce in business since the opening of the 40km Limerick Greenway, which runs from Rathkeale to Abbeyfeale, more than €15m funding has been allocated to the town to broaden footpaths and build new parking facilities away from the Main St.
The town centre will also see more trees and street furniture on the Main St, and the town’s square will be developed so it can host concerts.
“There are really big plans for Abbeyfeale,” Mr O’Connell said.
“The town is becoming a much different place to what it was two years ago.
“The way the council has been dealing with dereliction has really put the fire under people sitting on derelict properties.
“They see what the council are doing in other parts of the town and suddenly, there is a lot of shop fronts and houses being painted and done up.
“While there are a load of new grants now available from the government, it really helps to have a council that is very proactive in tackling vacancy and dereliction.”
- Limerick had 693 buildings under construction in the 12 months to June 2023, according to the GeoDirectory Residential Buildings Report Q2 2023.
- There were, on top of that, an additional 767 buildings about to start construction.
- The county, which saw its population rise 5.4% to 205,444 by the 2022 census compared to 194,899 in 2016, had an estimated above average residential vacancy rate of 4.1%, over the 3.9% national average.
- Its share of the State’s total 21,134 derelict properties nationwide was, according to the report, 5.4% or 1,141 properties in Limerick.
- According to the GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report Q4 2022, Limerick had the highest commercial vacancy rate of 16.9%, in Munster and the country — up from 16.7% in Q4 2021.
- In Abbeyfeale, the rate had fallen from 23.6% in 2021 to 22.1% in 2022.
- According to the 2022 Census, Co Limerick’s housing stock of properties was 85,776 — up from 82,112 in 2016.
- Of these, 6,643 were vacant in 2022, down from 7,752 in 2016.
- In addition, of the dwellings considered vacant in the 2022 Census, 639 were for sale and 1011 were rental properties.
- The number of Limerick’s unoccupied holiday homes was 642, up from 432 in 2016.
In May, the council announced it was intending to compulsorily acquire 23 more derelict properties from across Limerick city and county using its powers under the Derelict Sites Act, 1990.
In doing so, it confirmed the new notices brought to 250 the number of notices served since it set up a unit to tackle derelict and vacant property in 2018.
In announcing that significant milestone, the council also confirmed it is on course to rake up €6.5m in sales of compulsorily acquired property.
The acquisitions proposed in May were yet another part of Limerick City and County Council’s fight against dereliction.
This has, at least up to May this year, seen the Council complete the compulsory acquisition of more than 150 derelict and vacant properties since 2018, up from 145 last November.
Added to that, the council was also awaiting the determination of An Bord Pleanála on a further 28 cases, up from 21 in last November.
The council has sold more than 19 of the compulsorily acquired properties on the open market and, as of November, there were a further 57 properties for sale or at sale agreed stage.
The majority of the compulsorily acquired properties are residential and are put up for sale by the council on the open market where they say there is “strong demand” for them.
The council has achieved more than €2m in sales to date and there is more than €4.5m in further property sales near completion.
In case anybody thinks the council gets to keep all this money, they would be wrong.
Income generated from property sales is used to compensate former owners.