There’s still room to improve our knowledge of vacant properties

Sir, – Eoin Burke-Kennedy (March 27th) confidently debunks the “vacant property narrative” (’A new CSO report debunks the vacant property narrative in Ireland,’ Economy, March 27th) based on updated figures for vacancy from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) that are based on ESB-metered electricity consumption.

While electricity usage is a logical and valuable indicator of the extent to which a building is used, the CSO is very clear these figures are limited to residential units with active meters. There are numerous reasons why a building might have an inactive or no meter, and the figures inevitably exclude many buildings that communities across the country would recognise as vacant, including unused floors above shops and abandoned buildings.

In addition, the ESB data is not entirely reliable for identifying whether a property is residential, and the CSO has only included properties where there was a sufficient level of certainty, reducing an initial figure by more than 20,000.

The reality is we still do not know enough about the extent, distribution and nature of vacancy in this country. Far from being a “dead end”, the efficient use and management of the built environment, based on comprehensive and reliable data, would deliver an as yet unquantified number of much needed homes, reduce GHG emissions, and revitalise our struggling historic town centres. – Yours, etc,