Vacant Social Housing Units Report – Why Are Empty Council Homes Taking Months to Re-Let?

Ireland has more than 60,000 households that are facing unmet social housing need; while thousands of existing council homes remain vacant at any particular time. Irish Independent

While that may sound alarming during a housing crisis, the latest vacant social housing units report from the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) presents a more complicated picture.

• The number of vacant local-authority social homes actually fell to its lowest level in a decade during 2025. 3,866 social housing units were vacant at the end of 2025, a reduction from 4,251 in 2024.

I was initially surprised that so many social homes, in my opinion, were still vacant. I was even more surprised to find out that across Ireland, it takes an average of more than 32 weeks to get a vacant social home ready for the next tenants. Irish Times

I have no insight into why re-letting these homes is challenging for local councils, so I thought it would be interesting to at least understand why.

Main Findings from the NOAC Vacant Social Housing Units Report.

NOAC’s 2025 Local Authority Performance Indicator Report provides a yearly assessment of how Ireland’s local authorities are performing across housing and other public services.

The latest housing figures show:

Social Housing Measure	2024	2025
Vacant local-authority homes	4,251	3,866
Vacancy rate	2.75%	2.44%
Local-authority social housing stock	155,060	158,772
Homes added to stock	5,324	4,324
Average re-letting time	35.56 weeks	More than 32 weeks

The vacancy rate of 2.44% is the lowest recorded since 2015, and I quickly learned that this is important positive news. What this suggests is that local authorities are making better use of the social housing Ireland already has.

I understand that to you reading, it may not seem like it from where we’re sitting, but I’d like us to cut the local authorities some slack – even for just a little bit.

However, another figure from the report was more interesting to me – that a vacant council home still takes more than 32 weeks on average to re-let. And to me, more than half a year can seem an extraordinarily long time to have an existing home sitting without a tenant during a housing shortage.

So what gives?

Why Vacant Social Homes Take So Long to Re-Let.

1. Repairs & Refurbishments

The first thing I ultimately had to concede is that a “vacant” social home is not necessarily a perfectly livable house waiting for someone to collect the keys. Vacancy figures can include properties that are waiting to be let out again or simply needing repair work.

• As a matter of fact, 2024 NOAC reporting guidelines also require the NOAC to also include illegally occupied properties within the vacancy measure. See document HERE.

So when a long-term tenant leaves, a council may quickly discover that a significant amount of work is needed before another tenant can safely move in. This may sound obvious to some, but I honestly underestimated how

Depending on the property, these works can include:

• Electrical repairs or upgrades;
• Plumbing, heating, insulation work;
• Replacing kitchens or bathrooms;
• Structural repairs etc

Keep in mind that a very significant amount of Ireland’s 158k social homes are over 50 years old.

2. Shortage of Tradespeople and Contractors

Local authorities operate in the same construction market as everyone else, and one thing we’ve discussed so many times on this website is the severe shortage of skilled tradespeople in Ireland right now. My Little Home.

Local councils need electricians, plumbers, carpenters, builders and other skilled workers, and those same workers are also needed to build other new private homes, new social housing, infrastructure and commercial developments.

This connects with a wider issue we recently discussed in relation to major infrastructure projects such as MetroLink.

3. Public Procurement Constraints

A local authority also operates differently from an individual homeowner. A homeowner might notice a problem on Monday and call the local plumber immediately. Councils on the other hand, usually have public spending and procurement requirements.

Works first need to be inspected, specified, costed and then allocated appropriately. So depending on the scale and type of work required, contractors may also be involved.

These controls exist for legitimate reasons, which include accountability for public money. But as you can probably see by now, the overall process can add so much time between one tenant leaving and another moving in.

4. Finding the Right Match for the Home

Think of a vacant one-bedroom apartment. A family with three children cannot be allocated that property simply because they are near the top of the waiting list. Likewise, a larger house may not be appropriate for a single applicant.

Social housing therefore has a matching problem as well as a numbers problem, and so the right home needs to become available for the right tenant.

Let us not forget other requirements that may make the allocation a bit more complicated, i.e, medical needs, proximity to services and the fact that a tenant at the top of the list can choose to turn down a housing offer if they feel the home does not meet their needs.

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Re-Letting Times Vary Enormously Across Ireland (2025)

Local Authority	Average Re-letting time
Monaghan	11.61 weeks
Laois	16.07 weeks
Sligo	20.71 weeks
National average	More than 32 weeks
Limerick City & County	56.50 weeks
Kerry	66.12 weeks

You can see that Kerry’s average exceeded one year. Such a variation is suggests that the condition of individual properties cannot be the entire explanation for the long re-letting times.

• The age of social houses, the geography, contractor availability, local procedures, property condition etc may all contribute to such long delays.

In my opinion, this also raises a reasonable question about whether lessons from faster-performing councils (Monaghan), could help authorities that are having longer re-letting times (Kerry).

Falling Vacancies Are Still Good News

At the end of 2024, Ireland had 4,251 vacant local-authority homes. By the end of 2025 this had fallen to 3,866. This means that the vacancy rate dropped from 2.75% to 2.44% – its lowest level since 2015.

During a housing shortage, getting existing homes back into use is one of the quickest ways to increase housing. But there is still a limit to what this method can achieve.

Ireland Cannot Solve Its Social Housing Shortage Through Vacant Homes Alone

A vacancy rate of 2.44% means that approx 97.6% of directly provided social housing is occupied. Even if re-letting these homes became much faster, Ireland still cannot recover tens of thousands of additional homes repeatedly from the existing council stock.

Ireland therefore, has two major ongoing challenges:

1. Use the existing social housing stock as efficiently as possible.

And:

2. Continue adding enough new social housing to meet growing need.

At the end of 2025, local authorities owned 158,772 social homes. During the year, 4,324 homes were added to that stock. When you compare that with 5,324 in 2024, that is a fall of 18.78%.

THERE IS ALSO A RETROFIT PROBLEM.

Vacant properties present councils with an opportunity to carry out energy upgrades before another tenant moves in.But Ireland is also behind the pace required to meet its social housing retrofit ambitions.

The National Climate Action Plan targets 36,500 local-authority homes reaching a BER of B2 or equivalent by 2030.

In 2025, 2,671 social homes were retrofitted, compared with 2,634 in 2024. NOAC concluded that the current rate of growth is not sufficient to achieve the 2030 target without further acceleration.

Councils want vacant properties returned to use quickly – but the period between tenants can also be one of the best opportunities to carry out substantial upgrades without disrupting somebody living in the property.

This is a dilemma I honestly do not envy having to deal with directly, so I empathise with the contractors and council staff that are tasked with having to create magic out of a difficult national situation.

Final Thoughts

At first glance, seeing 3,866 vacant council homes during a housing crisis can seem frustrating. But then the fuller picture is more complicated, as councils probably deal with complex procedures, red tape, and skills shortage that conistently make a bad case worse.

Also, some properties require significant refurbishment or energy upgrades, as well as finding appropriate tenants to match vacant properties.

These can help explain why a council home cannot always be re-let immediately.

However, an average turnaround of 32 weeks is still too long, and I guess it raises questions about whether the process can be improved, especially when some councils are re-letting homes much faster than others.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s much easier for me to sit here and say, ‘Oh, Co. Monaghan seems to be doing alright, why can they not be tasked with sharing their expertise and systems with sister councils?’ . But is it really that easy? Is it really that straightforward? What evidence is there to suggest that this knowledge exchange will be adopted in time to make any real change to an already complex housing situation? Will that change the difficulties that rural councils face in getting suitable or even willing tenants to move into available homes?

The amount of progress is not nearly enough, but I have to reluctantly admit that from the figures, local councils appear to be making genuine progress in reducing social housing vacancies.

But the real challenge remains the same: adding enough suitable homes to the social housing stock; while continuing to make the best possible use of the homes Ireland already has.