Date: 04 Oct 2024
The Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant Scheme – Grant payments exceed €2.9m
Donegal County Council is delighted to report that grant payments of the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant Scheme have now exceeded €2.9m, which represents 58 homes being brought back into use.
Since the Scheme opened in July 2022, 927 applications have been received to refurbish vacant properties. To date, 614 of these have been approved for grant support, with the balance awaiting further information from the applicant or being scheduled for a first technical inspection. Within the overall total, 26 applications were deemed not to meet the scheme requirements and 33 applications were withdrawn by the applicant.
In total the value of approved grants represents a possible investment throughout the county of more than €30m should all grants now approved be brought through to completion by the applicants.
Liam Ward, Director of Services for Community Development and Planning Services said “the Grant scheme provides a significant incentive to the owners of vacant properties to bring properties back into use for family homes, in addition to significant benefits for the local economy and community. I strongly encourage owners of vacant properties to contact the team to explore the supports available to bring properties back into use”.
As the number of properties which have completed their refurbishment works, with applicants having submitted their vouched expenditure, continues to accelerate at pace, the challenge is to process these in a timely fashion in order to reimburse the applicants for the approved works. The typical time from submission of receipts to payment of the grant to the applicants is currently between 6-8 weeks. This compares very favourably with other counties, and we will continue to prioritise this part of the process.
To date the Council have held information events in 38 locations in the County and wishes to thank everyone who attended these events in such high numbers. Due to the continued demand a further program of information events is being planned for late October/ early November. Details of these dates and venues will be published within the next 2 weeks.
Further information on the scheme is available at www.donegalcoco.ie or by contacting the team at vacanthomes@donegalcoco.ie or by phone during office hours at 074 9153900.
