Council close expression of interest for housing acquisition in Mayo

Mayo County Council have announced that they have closed expressions of interest for housing acquisition in 2025 because of the lack of funding to meet the current demand.

In 2025, Mayo County Council was allocated €3.5 million in funding for the acquisition of houses and to date four properties have been purchased.

An Expression of Interest portal was introduced by the council whereby property owners can upload basic details on their property if they wish to have this property considered for purchase by the local authority.

Speaking at the Housing Strategic Policy Committee meeting, Olivia Gallagher, Head of Housing with Mayo County Council explained this portal will now be closing.

“We want to let people know that we are closing our housing acquisitions expressions of interest portal for 2025 because we have more properties submitted than funding available for 2025,” she revealed.

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The primary focus in acquiring property is when a tenant who is in receipt of social housing support has received a notice of termination because a landlord has decided to sell the property.

“Mayo County Council received an allocation of €3.5 million for acquisitions for 2025. So far in 2025, four purchases have been completed and another four acquisitions we are waiting for confirmation that purchases have closed,” Ms Gallagher outlined to the SPC members. .

Cathaoirleach of the Housing SPC, Cllr Peter Flynn said that while the funding was welcome he added that by acquiring property the council were in competition with the first time buyers market.

The Westport-based Fine Gael councillor said he would prefer if the council concentrated on building their own stock and one and two-bedroom properties in particular.

“My preference is we continue to build houses and build a lot more two-bedroom and not the standard,” he said.

“In terms of density and design Mayo County Council have failed miserably in terms of what we developed in housing estates around the county. We need to be more imaginative and in line with what people require out there. We can build larger developments that have more units within them which meet the housing need than the lazy solution which is to continue to build 30 to 40 three-bedroom houses without actually looking at the housing need.”