Mayo County Council has unveiled a host of new features for its innovative Vacant Homes website.

The site, which launched in 2017, works as a tool to identify and bring back long-term homes into use.

The latest statistics indicate that 3,150 properties have been registered to date on vacanthomes.ie and act as a solid 'lead' for local authorities to undertake desk-top analysis in determining ownership of potentially vacant dwellings.

All properties registered on the website are sent on to the relevant local authorities in "real time" to speed up the process of finding and engaging with the owners of homes that can be brought back into use.

VacantHomes.ie also provides helpful information for property owners on how to bring their vacant properties back into use and on financial supports available. Almost 300 empty homes have been brought back into use by Local Authorities or the original owners since the website began collecting data.

-- Advertisement --

At a recent network event in Dublin, hosted by the Housing Department, Vacant Homes Officers found out about the site's new features first-hand.

Tom Gilligan, Director of Services with Mayo County Council, said: "We are looking forward to highlighting our successful VacantHomes.ie website. There are several new modifications to the website which will assist housing authorities to provide more social housing units that will help alleviate homelessness and reduce the number of people currently in emergency accommodation.

"The event was a great opportunity to have Vacant Home Officers from all over the country in one room to learn about a number of initiatives, including best practices in relation to Compulsory Purchase Orders, which is a key tool to help bring vacant homes back into use.

"Vacant Home Officers are at the coalface of dealing with property owners and vacant homes. Their work is proving invaluable in relation to on-going efforts to breathe new life in to empty and in some cases derelict buildings. The team at VacantHomes.ie is only too happy to help and assist housing authorities in trying to reduce housing waiting lists and help solve the current housing crisis."

Some of the new features available on VacantHomes.ie include a text alert to notify a Vacant Home Officer of new properties logged. It also includes the contact details, photos and quotes from Vacant Home Officers, the creation of a new user interface for ease of navigation and a new animated explainer video.

For more information visit www.VacantHomes.ie.

(CM/JG)