Wicklow County Council to offload dilapidated properties to fund estate renewals

By Hugh O'Farrell Walsh, The Wicklow People

Wicklow County Council has adopted a new “disposal and reinvestment” strategy to tackle its growing list of derelict properties, a move that sparked some debate during the local authority’s February monthly meeting.

Facing a shortfall in national regeneration funding, the council executive proposed the strategic sale of a limited number of void units—properties deemed technically or financially unfeasible to refurbish.

The proceeds would be ring-fenced into a capital fund dedicated to repairing other neglected council estates across the county, including Hillview in Wicklow town and Farrankelly near Greystones.

The council’s budget includes a €7 million increase in the housing allocation, with several specific "refinements" to maintenance.

• An additional €964,000 specifically for "high demand" pre-letting repairs to speed up the turnaround of vacant units.

• New allocations of €345,000 for planned maintenance and €100,000 for a windows and doors replacement programme to prevent properties from becoming "void" in the first place.

• €223,000 allocated for professional condition surveys to identify and prioritise the most at-risk properties across the five Municipal Districts.

The council has increased its allocation for the Croí Cónaithe Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant by €700,000, bringing the 2026 total to €4 million.

This is designed to encourage private owners to bring their own vacant buildings back into use, reducing the overall vacancy rate in the county.

The council has fully implemented a local area maintenance framework using 17 pre-approved contractors. This allows for a more agile response to repair needs in specific districts like Arklow and Baltinglass, rather than relying on a centralised, slower system.

During the February monthly meeting discussions regarding void housing stock were shaped by frustrations over a lack of funding and the resulting need for "strategic disposal."

Cllr Joe Behan has consistently argued that the council is being "obstructed" by a lack of support and that letting go of public land and homes during a housing crisis is "worrying".

“I don’t blame the council executive for this. I blame the fact that we as a county are not getting enough funds to provide the housing that we need and to deal with the voids that we have on our hands at the moment. And therefore, I understand why this proposal is coming forward.”

Continuing a long-standing theme in his contributions, Cllr John Snell expressed deep frustration with the perceived lack of local control over housing and planning.

“The optics of this is not great, that as a local authority we're selling off housing units to pay for to carry out repairs on windows and doors on some of our own stock. I have no doubt there'll be people out there trying to make headlines out of that, but I fully understand where the director is coming from and the difficulties that he has.”

Meanwhile Cllr Peir Leonard expressed her wish that people who are waiting for housing in the county would be prioritised.

“It would be important for me that these houses go to people from the 29 local area and not just people that looking to sit on another site for years.”

“For instance, Arklow Main Street has just become a row of derelict properties basically at the detriment of the community. So, it would be important to safeguard that they aren't left vacant once they're sold, and maybe some policy can be put into the provisions that they have to be regenerated within a certain period.”

These sentiments were echoed by Cllr Stephen Stokes.

“We don't want people coming in and making massive profits. I have no problem with people working hard on the free market making an honest buck, but within reason. But one critical thing for me, why I am very supportive of this is that I am a big believer in the broken windows theory, which is where in essence you know if something is derelict or windows are broken, it disproportionately brings down the whole area.”

Michael Nicholson, who is the council’s director of housing assured members that the sale of properties would not be "wholesale."

He clarified that the council is only targeting the "worst of the worst"—homes in such a state that they cannot be made fit for habitation at a reasonable expense—to generate funds for repairing other council-owned homes.

The strategy will be reviewed after 12 months, to consider how it worked in practice and to make changes to the policy if any issues arose during that period.

Outside the chamber, Sinn Féin Wicklow Wexford TD Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin criticised the council's overall approach to dereliction as insufficient, noting that only a handful of properties had featured on the official register despite widespread vacancy across the county.

His party colleague Wicklow TD John Brady (supported by Cllr Joe Behan) labelled the government’s refusal to fund projects like the Rehills site in Bray as "disgraceful," insisting that such land must stay in public ownership rather than being sold for private development.