‘It was a huge sacrifice, but it brought us closer together ’ – couple on renovating vacant house in Dublin
A young family in south Dublin have spent over one year renovating a vacant home with the help of a grant of almost €50,000 from the State.
After long evenings and weekends working on rewiring, replumbing and redesigning the home that was left vacant for close to three years, Gearóid Jones and his fiancee Rosaleen Daly, both aged 35, have received €48,000 for the work they put into it.
“It was a huge sacrifice because it took up all of our time for a year,” Ms Daly said. “Every evening after work, Gearóid would spend hours and hours working on the house.
The project took close to 15 months to complete. Photo: Gearóid Jones
“You have to do the work up front and the reward came afterwards – the most important thing was to stay optimistic.”
The Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant can be availed of from the Department of Housing by anyone renovating a “permanent home” out of a property that has been left vacant for at least two years.
Assessed and implemented by local authorities, it ranges from a payment of up to €50,000 and can go up to €70,000 in the case of derelict properties.
“I was in university in Dublin, I’ve lived in shared and rented houses – I was saving up to buy a house the whole time,” Mr Jones, who moved to Dublin from Monaghan as a student, said.
“We were really lucky because househunting can be quite difficult. We would start bidding on homes at €400,000 and it would go all the way up over €800,000, it drives you off ever buying a house.”
After close to six months of searching, Mr Jones and Ms Daly found a home in Rathfarnham, on Dublin’s southside, in November 2023, that met their budget.
“When we first saw it, the house was in working condition, but I wouldn’t say it would have been safe or comfortable to live in. It had gone through probate and not been lived in for close to three years,” Mr Jones said.
Gearóid Jones and his fiancee Rosaleen Daly's home in Rathfarnham which they renovated. Photo: Steve Humphreys
“We did a lot of the work ourselves and learned loads during the process. I joke that if you ever needed relationship advice from us, it would be to renovate a house together – it brought us closer together.
“We wanted this to be a home for our family and we’re now fortunate to be expecting our first child: most of the work on the house is done.”
The couple received their payment this month after they submitted their final documents to South Dublin County Council (SDCC): the money covers plumbing, heating, insulation, painting and structural repairs.
“We are committed to tackling vacancy and dereliction across the county by bringing vacant properties back into use as homes,” a spokesperson from SDCC said.
The couple's living room after the house was renovated. Photo: Steve Humphreys
“The fund has proven to be highly successful in south Dublin. To date, 119 grants have been paid, helping to turn long-term vacant and derelict properties back into homes.”
Last year, the Department of Housing reported over 3,000 vacant or derelict homes were brought back into use through the scheme.
Mr Jones remembers the long evenings he spent trying to bring their “dream home” together.
“My main concern was safety, we wanted it to be a house we felt safe in. The plumbing and heating was fine, but not efficient,” he said.
“One part of this was the electrics. There were probably electric heaters in the house at some point, we could see that some of the sockets had visibly been scorched from the draw of energy.
“Replumbing and rewiring a house can be very invasive, so I wanted to get the dirty work done upfront.”
The couple did the insulation and slabbing work themselves, while they brought in experts for plumbing, electric work and plastering.
“We even attempted to plaster a box room upstairs until we found out we’re not plasterers. An expert told us it was the worst plastering job he’d even seen. But I did a lot of the physical work myself. I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands, and this was a great opportunity to save on our costs,” Mr Jones said.
For some of the materials and structural changes, the couple relied on their friends and family to help.
“All the bedrooms upstairs had over five layers of wallpaper with paint in between them that we had to take off by hand. There was pebble dash under the stairs and on the ceilings that we removed using sugar soap,” Ms Daly said.
The renovated kitchen. Photo: Steve Humphreys
“It was so much hard work – all the kitchen had to be taken out, Gearóid put in the counter tops himself. We made the kitchen wider and the stairs had to be narrowed.”
Once a property is identified, the applicant has to gather proof of ownership, prove it was built before 2008, and submit it to their local authority for an inspection.
Despite some “hiccups” along the way, the couple believe the grant helped them navigate Dublin’s housing market.
“The grant helped us massively. Credit where it is due: people from the council and the vacant homes department were unbelievably helpful and were really reassuring,” Mr Jones said.
“You’ve got 13 months to complete the work and get your documents in order. In my twelfth month, I had to get an extension because I ran into issues with a vendor. The council was super helpful through all of that.”
After the extension, it took the couple almost 15 months in total to complete works. According to the terms of the grant, approval for the payment must be received before works start, but the money itself is only paid after.
The kitchen during renovation work, which the couple did a lot of themselves. Photo: Gearóid Jones
“Yes, I had a vacant home and €50,000, but I’d need to reach the end of the process before I got it,” Mr Jones said.
“I think it can be tricky because you’ve already spent money on the house and as a sceptical person, I was thinking that there was no guarantee that I would be paid back.
“We definitely spent more than €50,000 in the process, but we can’t claim a lot of that back. A lot of people might not be able to afford paying up front in this way.”
The most important part of the process was to stay on top of the required paper work, the couple said.
“The money is a huge benefit. I would advise anyone availing of it to do research upfront – to find vendors who are qualified and reliable,” Mr Jones said.
“There are issues like tax clearance for the vendors that you need to look at where the onus is put on the homeowner.”