Published: Friday, 29th January, 2010 12:00pm

Building bust: 1,900 vacant houses in Offaly

Six derelict housing estates - NIRSA

There are six housing estates with 50% or more unoccupied houses in Offaly - with the majority having between 21 and 50 houses empty.

Professor Rob Kitchin, Director of the NIRSA, and Justin Gleeson, said they thought the figures were a "realistic assessment" given the housing market over the past couple of years.

"This over-supply is likely to keep prices low for some time, even when the market flattens out and demand starts to grow again, and restrain any return to large-scale residential property development for the foreseeable future," they said.

And although demand should quickly increase in cities, the oversupply in the rural counties will take a lot longer to become occupied.

"This is likely to keep prices in such areas depressed for some time to come and poses questions about what to do with housing that remains vacant in these areas for long periods," they added.

In response to the figures, Cathaoirleach of Offaly County Council Noel Bourke said that changes need to be made to planning laws.

"Zoning and planning permission has to be looked at going forward. It has to be more realistic and more restrained. We shouldn't be over-zoning land," he said.

But Cllr Bourke defended the decisions granted by the council during the boom years.

"A lot of planning permission was given I suppose, but at the time there was a lot of demand for houses that were needed," he added. "If it's not sufficient then the danger is that it will drive up housing prices, if there's enough houses available then people get the best value. What's required is a realistic approach that also allows people to choose where they want to live."

Cllr Bourke added that builders should be held accountable for half-finished estates.

"Builders should have to finish the estates they build. I'm not at all happy that in some cases, land or buildings have been left unfinished and they can walk away," he said. "Measures need to be added to the planning permission. New laws need to be put in place to tackle that."

He added that there were also concerns about anti-social behaviour in derelict sites.

Offaly County Council plans to rent houses from landlords on a longterm basis, to give to people on the lengthy housing waiting list. In Tullamore, 15 houses have already changed hands and it will also be introduced in Edenderry. Cllr Bourke said that the council's house building programme will be "relatively small".