Vacant homes grant applications increasingly derailed by paperwork and technical checks

Ottoline Spearman

Applicants for the vacant property refurbishment grant are increasingly being turned down over missing paperwork or failing technical checks, as the average wait for a refusal is now more than four times longer than when the scheme launched.

Figures released under Freedom of Information laws show that administrative and procedural issues are the main reasons for rejections, with 29 per cent of refusals last year down to "technical assessments" alone.

Average time taken to notify applicants of their rejection has also risen sharply, from 33 days in 2022 to 145 days in 2025.

In 2025, 30 per cent of refusals were due to applicants failing to provide additional documentation when requested by local authorities. A further 29 per cent of applications were refused following technical assessments by local authority staff. Another 29 per cent were refused after technical assessment.

Vacant properties have long been a scar on Ireland's landscape, with 80,328 homes vacant nationally in Q2 of last year - or 3.7 per cent - according to GeoDirectory Residential Buildings report.

The vacant property refurbishment grant, introduced in July 2022, is a Government grant of up to €70,000 designed to bring vacant and derelict homes back into use.

In December, Minister for Housing James Browne also announced the continuation of the grant to 2030, as well as a grant of up to €140,000 for vacant areas above shops to be turned into homes.

Since its launch, 11,800 applications have been approved, while 674 have been rejected, with the most common reason for rejection each year being a failure to meet the two-year vacancy requirement rule.

However, the data shows a shift from eligibility-based refusals when the grant was rolled out in 2022, to paperwork failures and technical assessment refusals from 2023 onwards.

In 2022, 40 per cent of applications were refused due to properties failing to meet the requirement of being vacant for more than two years, with a further 28 per cent refused because properties did not meet location requirements.

By 2023, failure to meet the vacancy requirement accounted for one-third of rejections, but administrative and procedural issues became more prominent.

Almost one in five applications were rejected because applicants failed to provide additional documentation requested by local authorities. At the same time, 27 per cent of refusals were attributed to assessments by local authority technical staff, a broad category that provides little detail on why properties were deemed unsuitable.

Administrative barriers became the most common reason for rejection in 2024. That year saw 331 rejections from 4,729 applications - a refusal rate of around 7 per cent, the highest since the scheme began.

Almost half of all refusals were due to applicants failing to submit additional documentation or evidence requested after applying, and around a fifth were refused following a technical assessment by local authority staff.

In 2025, rejection rates fell sharply, with a refusal rate of 2.2 per cent, but administrative and technical reasons continued to account for the majority of refusals.

The length of time applicants wait to be told they have been rejected has also increased dramatically since the scheme’s launch. In 2022, unsuccessful applicants waited an average of just 33 days for a decision.

That rose to 84 days in 2023 before peaking at 217 days - more than seven months - in 2024. While average rejection times fell to 145 days in 2025, they remain more than four times longer than at the outset of the scheme.

Data also shows that applicants are, on average, notified significantly faster when their application is successful than when it is refused, leaving unsuccessful applicants waiting months to learn they have failed.

When asked about the trends in rejection reasons, the Department for Housing said: "The grant is administered by each of the 31 local authorities, who process, decide and communicate with applicants in relation to grant applications.

"The Department cannot provide any further information in relation to the specific questions asked."