40 times more vacant homes than homeless people in Co Cork

There are 459 homeless adults and 17,380 vacant homes in Cork city and county, May's homelessness report and the latest CSO figures show us.

A tent next to the River Lee. Photo: Getty Images

459 adults

459 adults accessed emergency accommodation in all of Cork city and county in May, according to the latest figures in the government’s monthly homelessness report.

But there are almost 40 times this number of empty homes, Census 2022 has revealed.

There are 17,380 vacant homes in the county, preliminary data from Census 2022 has shown: 4,994 vacant homes in Cork city and 12,286 in Cork county.

County Cork had the second-highest number of vacant homes in the country, with only Dublin city, where there are 17,468 vacant homes, recording more than Co Cork.

109 children in emergency accommodation

The Department of Housing’s monthly homelessness report, which only records those who have accessed emergency accommodation in local authorities, reported 109 children from 72 families were in emergency accommodation in May in “the South West,” which comprises Cork city and county local authorities and Kerry.

How and why some figures are reported by county and others are reported by geographic region is unclear.

3,087 empty rental properties

Meanwhile, information collected on vacancy for Census 2022 also shows some of the reasons why houses in Ireland are standing empty.

3,087 vacant properties were rental properties, including short term lets, across city and county, while there were 667 vacant new builds.

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1,373 abandoned farmhouses

Across Cork city and county, on Census night 2022, 2,788 homes were recorded as vacant due to the death of the owner, while 1,300 homes were vacant because an owner was in a nursing home or hospital.

In County Cork, there are 1,373 abandoned farmhouses.

Other reasons given for vacancy included:

• 2,646 homes were vacant for renovation

• 1,962 properties were being sold

• 212 homes were empty because the owners had emigrated.

Countrywide: 23,483 homes vacant for 11 years

2% of Cork city and county’s vacant properties have been vacant over six years: they were also recorded vacant at Census 2016.

Nationally, 14% of the country’s 166,752 homes, 23,483, have remained vacant for 11 years, since Census 2011.