Mayo has highest dereliction rate

DERELICT MAYO Two derelict houses on Spencer Street in Castlebar, which have since been knocked. Mayo has the highest rate of dereliction in the country.


Oisín McGovern

MAYO has the highest rate of derelict houses in the country, with 13.5 percent of residential properties in a derelict state.
According to the latest Geo Director Survey, Mayo also the second highest rate of vacant houses in the country, with 11.2 percent of residential properties lying empty.
This stands above the national average vacancy rate of 4 percent.
Connacht as a whole had the highest vacancy rate of any region with 9.8 percent while Leitrim had the highest vacancy rate with 12.2 percent.
In 2022, there 452 new residential addresses added to the Stock of Residential Dwellings in Mayo, making up 0.7 percent of the county’s housing stock.
This represents a 53 percent increase on 2021 when construction was shut down during the third Covid-19.
Twelve other counties added less new residential addresses than Mayo, with Dublin topping the list with 9,189.
There were 1,197 transactions of residential properties in Mayo in 2022, 11.2 percent were new dwellings.
The average price of a house in the county now stands at €203,425, well below the national average – excluding Dublin – of €282,412.
Westport was once again the county’s most expensive postcode, with an average house price fetching €271,616.
Ballyhaunis was the cheapest postcode in Mayo with an average house costing €133,766.
Ballinrobe-based auctioneer and county councillor Michael Burke said he would encourage people to avail of various schemes aimed at helping property owners refurbish derelict houses.  
A total of 19 properties have been brought back to use since the launch of the government’s Repair and Lease Scheme in 2018. This allows property owners to borrow up to €50,000 to refurbish their property, which they must let to the county council for five years.
There have been at least 47 applications for the Croí Cónaithe scheme, which allows grants of up to €30,000 for refurbishment of vacant properties to be used as the owner’s primary residence.
“I was very happy with the suite of options that’s available now and I think it will make an impact inside the next couple of months,” Cllr Burke said.
“Obviously it takes an investment from the person that might own the property but there’s good support out there for them to go and do something that wasn’t there heretofore.”