More houses bought by Dublin City Council for social housing using compulsory purchase powers are now facing demolition due to the severe deterioration in their condition.
The council more than seven years ago secured permission from An Bord Pleanála to acquire two privately-owned houses at 8 and 10 Ferguson Road in Drumcondra.
The houses were already in a derelict condition, with the council having undertaken emergency stabilisation works in 2012. However, they have now passed the point where they can be refurbished and their “demolition is required”, the council said.
The council is now considering whether to level the houses and develop the land or to sell the property “back to the private market”.
RM Block
This follows the council’s decision last month to scrap the redevelopment of two derelict houses it bought in Phibsborough almost seven years ago for social housing due to the “excessive” €1.7 million cost. The houses on Connaught Street were bought in 2019, one year after those on Ferguson Road.
Following years of deterioration the council finally placed numbers 8 and 10 Ferguson Road on the Derelict Sites Register in 2017 with valuations of €120,000 and €100,000 respectively due to their already poor condition at the time. The following year An Bord Pleanála approved the compulsory purchase of the houses.
However, work to bring them back into use did not proceed. In early 2022 the council said that “due to the extent of work required, it is anticipated that these properties will be returned to use in early 2024”.
In 2023 it said this work was at design stage with plans being prepared for their “refurbishment and return to use”.
At the end of 2024 it said investigations were under way to identify the cause of subsidence in the properties. Due to the extent of the subsidence, the council has determined “demolition will be required” and “a feasibility survey will also be necessary to assess whether continuing with the project offers value for money”.
In response to queries from Green Party councillor Feljin Jose last month, the council said “due to the excessive work required”, the council was now looking at options other than social housing use, including “redeveloping the land” or selling the site “back to the private market”.
The council must stop buying buildings that “are clearly about to fall apart” Jose said. “What always happens is by the time we act, it’s too late. And then we end up compulsory purchasing something that’s not worth anything to anybody.”
The compulsory purchase order system was “intentionally slow and does not help, but I don’t think the council helps itself”, he said.
“I’ve seen far too many examples of cases being opened but the buildings not being entered on the Derelict Sites Register because the owners undertake to do work, or buildings being put on the register and then removed, but the work is either not done, or not done adequately.”
Labour TD Marie Sherlock said there had been “too much of a hands-off approach” in relation to derelict private property.
“If local authorities are to mean anything in Dublin we need to see much more aggressive interventionist action. There has been far too much of a hands-off approach on the basis that it’s somebody’s property.
“But as long as the property is there, not in use for a period of years, then I think the council needs to be equipped with much greater powers, and ultimately, that’s for central Government, to equip local authorities with those powers.”
The council is to increase the number of enforcement staff in its derelict sites section in the coming months. The Government intends to legislate for a new derelict sites tax at the end of this year.
