![John Gerard Reynolds: 'It is not as simple as it sounds [to be] saying people from Leitrim or other counties should sell off the old properties.' Photograph: Brian Farrell](https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/DWD7K5RODNFS7HLRSR22C3ZNTE.jpg?auth=a8bb5f3c0077ad67e07fc282c5ab8e07e9bebb71aef6627879789bbc19397acc&smart=true&width=1024&height=683)
A study suggesting that a not-insignificant chunk of Co Leitrim’s housing stock is vacant came as a shock to Joe Brady, mostly because the Carrick-on-Shannon-based estate agent cannot find enough properties to meet demand among those looking to buy or rent in the area.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) report published last week found the county had the highest proportion of vacant dwellings in the State, at 10.6 per cent. It comes at a time when local estate agents say they are not short of interest from people seeking to relocate now that working remotely has become a reality for many.
“Maybe one in 25 or one in 30 [is vacant] but one in 10 is absolutely ridiculous,” Brady says. “If they are talking about habitable homes, the number is entirely wrong. What are they calling a home? Is it a cottage with no roof halfway up a mountain? Is that a dwelling?”
Brady says houses that come on to his books are being picked up in “jig time” with the average time on the market at present no more than five weeks. “Some of them are gone within three. I have multiple bidders for pretty much every property.”
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The main source of unoccupied or underutilised properties, he believes, are main street terraced buildings in “secondary towns” where families previously lived above shops that have long since gone out of business.
[ Vacant-property refurbishment grants up to €50,000 to be available countrywideOpens in new window ]
However, he says the living quarters above these are not attractive propositions even for those desperate to get on the property ladder. “Younger couples in small towns want the front garden, the back garden, the driveway and the garage, and your mid- terrace house in the middle of town does not have most of that,” Brady adds.
James Spring, of Donohoe Spring estate agents, which has offices in Carrigallen, Co Leitrim, and Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, attributes the high vacancy rate to farmhouses lying empty for years.
“You do get a lot of properties that were a family’s home place a generation or two ago, where all the children moved away, and the house was left to somebody who does not know what to do with it,” he says.
“That person has no intention of moving back, no desire to do it up and rent it out. And if the house was attached to a farm, the land may well be rented out and the houses too far gone to do anything with.”
Spring suspects that sentimentality prevents many people from disposing of properties with a family history. He says that if “any of them were put up for sale they would sell, and if any of them were habitable for renting, they would rent”.
The introduction of vacant and derelict property refurbishment grants under the Government’s Croí Cónaithe Fund, which entitles people to €30,000 for doing up a property vacant for two or more years or €50,000 if it is derelict, has sparked a bit of activity, says Brady. Rising property prices have also focused some minds.
The expansion of the scheme last November to include rural properties, rather than just those in towns and villages, has put a spotlight on country dwellings.
[ Leitrim has highest home vacancy rate in State, CSO data showsOpens in new window ]
“We have sold a few of them already and most, if not all, were cash sales,” Spring says. “We find UK buyers still come here for the rural properties because in the UK you cannot buy a rural property for less than £200,000. We are the poor man’s Cornwall. They could get a cottage and a few acres here for under €100,000.”
Spring regards the grant scheme as a good initiative but believes most buyers want a finished product and can be daunted if a house needs significant work. “You can see the numbers racking up in their heads when they walk into a house.”
According to Leitrim County Council, there has been strong interest in the refurbishment scheme, with 100 application forms issued and 15 submitted so far. The majority have been for houses in rural areas outside towns and villages.
The council says it is “acutely aware” of the number of vacant properties in Co Leitirm, particularly in towns and villages, and sees “their reuse as a key component of the county’s regeneration”.
It has recently appointed a town regeneration officer, who will work closely with the vacant homes officer “to address dereliction and vacancy”. Its housing section has recently purchased a number of such properties under the Buy and Renew Scheme, which will be refurbished and let to households on the social housing list.
Fine Gael councillor Enda McGloin, who is based in the Ballinamore municipal district, was not at all surprised by the CSO vacancy figures.
[ Still 75 ‘ghost estates’ left over from property crashOpens in new window ]
“If you drive through local towns at night like Drumshanbo, Ballyfarnan, Keadue, Mohill or Ballinamore, it is very telling because there are no cars on the streets at 1am,” he says. “There is nobody living in the towns any more.”
He says that while tax incentives linked to housing became “a dirty word”, with the Upper Shannon Rural Renewal Scheme introduced in the late 1990s being blamed for a plethora of ghost estates, there is a case to be made for targeted tax breaks for people renovating derelict properties in small towns, villages and rural areas.
The refurbishment grant seeks a commitment from applicants to live in the property for at least 10 years, with financial penalties for those who do not. McGloin believes a tax break for anyone willing to refurbish a derelict property could lead to lower rents and ensure that older buildings with poor energy ratings are upgraded.
Case study: ‘It is not as simple as it sounds saying people should sell off the old properties’
John Gerard Reynolds, who lives in the parish of Gortletteragh in Co Leitrim, says there are 16 vacant rural houses within a one-mile radius of his home in the townland of Drumgrania. For him, the idea that one in 10 houses in the county is empty does not seem like a stretch.
The 74 year old reckons his own situation is typical. He was reared in a house built by his grandfather, Michael Reynolds, in the 1880s and went on to build his own home on the farm close to the original dwelling.
Even when old houses sit empty for years, he believes sentimentality and practical issues combine to prevent families from selling them on. “There is a feeling of ‘they can do what they want when I am gone but I won’t be the one to sell the old house’,” he says.
Reynolds says some abandoned rural farmhouses appear to have been sold since the Croí Connaithe scheme was extended but the numbers involved are small.
“The grant sounds good, but you and I know that if someone wants to buy a house and the people selling it are aware there is a €30,000 grant for repairs they will add that onto the price.”
Due to the fact many of the vacant properties in his areas are on farms, he believes simply selling them on is not as straightforward as it seems.
A neighbouring farmer may have bought up land around a house and issues can arise where new people moving into the associated home would have “cattle or tractors passing their door every day”.
“It might be okay if you were brought up on a farm but if you weren’t you might not want to listen to cows mooing all day,” he says.
Reynolds says “emigration would have played a big part” in the vacancy issue, with Leitrim historically having had one of the higher rates in Ireland.
“Young people left but the old people stayed living in the house and then one of the family who made a few pound might have come back and taken over the farm and built a home adjacent to the old house,” he says.
“So it would be awkward for a person to buy it where the land runs up to the back door almost. You’d be on top of the family… It is not as simple as it sounds [to be] saying people from Leitrim or other counties should sell off the old properties.”
