Grants for those wishing to renovate vacant homes are set to be increased under new housing plans go before cabinet on Tuesday. 

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien spoke at the Fianna Fáil Housing for All conference today in Dublin. 

The current grant for vacant property renovation is €30,000, with a grant of up to €50,000 for a derelict property. 

Mr O’Brien said cost rental tenures offer secure housing for tenants and the scheme should be expanded to increase building. 

"We do have to look at things, particularly around the cost-rentals being popular,” he said.  

“It's a new form of tenure – we have over a thousand tenancies approved right across the country.” 

A vacant property in Dublin, 23-02-2010. Image: James Horan/RollingNews

“But we have obviously seen an increase in financing costs because interest rates have gone up.” 

“We're exploring how we can bridge that viability gap,” Mr O’Brien said. “Cost rental has ramped up - but I'd like to see it go further.” 

In cost rental homes, the rent is based on how much building, managing and maintaining the property will cost. 

This cost is calculated over a minimum of 40 years and the rents must be at least 25% below private market rents in the area. 

Eviction ban 

The Housing Minister insists the ending of the moratorium on eviction was the ''right decision'' in the medium and long-term. 

"The moratorium was going to be brought in on a temporary basis to provide us additional space to provide additional accommodation, and we did that”, he said.  

“We did that quite substantially – 6,000 new social homes were built in the last quarter.” 

Mr O’Brien said 19,000 new tenancies were created in the first two months of 2023 and the Government has been able to “scale up” rental schemes such as SITU. 

“There's no party in the Dáil saying the eviction should not have been ended at some stage,” he said. “I think PBP were the only people saying that.”