County Longford recorded the highest vacancy rate among Council owned properties last year in the country while County Monaghan had the lowest.
New figures published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission reveal the vacancy rate at 7.19% in Longford
The NOAC publishes a review of every local authority's performance across a wide range of areas including housing, roads and how many pollution complaints they receive.
As the country battles a housing and homelessness crisis, the report highlights that Longford recorded the highest percentage of local authority owned dwellings which were vacant at the end of last year at 7.19%. Roscommon County Council recorded a figure of just over 4% and in Leitrim it was 3.89%. Cavan recorded a figure of 4.67% and Monaghan a figure of 0.84%, the lowest in the country. The NOAC report also reveals the average time it takes for local authority homes which are vacated to be re-tenanted which in Longford is on average 67 weeks. In Roscommon it's 25.61 weeks and in Leitrim the average wait is 23.09 weeks, while in Cavan the average wait is 55 weeks and in Monaghan, 13 weeks, the second lowest in the country behind Wexford. Every time Longford County Council also find a new tenant for a property, it costs on average €26,524.73.
In Leitrim the figure is just under €20,000 and in Roscommon it costs €14705 to get new tenants into Council properties. The average cost in Cavan is just over €17,000 and €21,000 in Monaghan
According to the report, the overall percentage of directly provided local authority stock vacant at the end of 2021 was just 3.16%, a decrease from the 2020 figure of 3.18%.
