Up to 40 per cent of Dublin’s housing targets could be met by reusing vacant commercial buildings and flats above shops for homes, according to a report commissioned by Dublin City Council.
Dublin’s climate action targets will not be met if housing and commercial buildings are continually demolished rather than reused, says the report from environmental researchers at the Centre for Public Impact and TransCap Initiative.
However, it found that the cost of refurbishing the city’s empty building stock is high, with up to €2.86 billion required to bring vacant property back into use.
The council in 2022 set up an “adaptive reuse” unit, to combat dereliction and provide homes through the reuse of vacant properties. Feasibility studies were prepared for 15 conversion projects and the first three properties were bought at a total cost of €6.35 million. However, the scheme has been radically curtailed, and just one project is proceeding: the adaptation of an office block at Fitzwilliam Quay in Ringsend.
Up to 16,000 homes could be created from vacant commercial and above-the-shop space. “This would present an important contribution to [the council’s] target of creating 40,000 new homes between 2022 and 2028,” the report says.
