Breathing new life into Meath’s derelict and vacant homes

Meath County Council's Rural Regeneration team has been working to tackle dereliction and vacancy in local towns and villages with the aim of breathing new life into old buildings-both one off houses and buildings that can be repurposed for community use and getting them back into productive use.

Working off both the vacant house register and the derelict sites register, a small team is chipping away at these lists to bring derelict homes and buildings back into use, through engagement with property owners who often work to address the issues themselves or in some cases Meath County Council will acquire suitable properties and bring them into their own housing stock, sell them on or look at refurbishing them for community amenities.

Meath County Council currently has 303 properties on its vacant homes register and 89 of these are being actioned in various ways whether through engagement with the owner or in some cases where this fails, through compulsory purchase order.

Homes are generally in adequate condition and staff will advise of various grants and schemes that property owners can access to refurbish them so they can be lived in or rented out.

The vacant property refurbishment grant offers €50,000 for vacant properties and a further €20,000 is available if the house is deemed to be derelict and so far Meath County Council has issued grants to the tune of €16m.

When the scheme was first established, grants were only available to people who intended to live in the homes but this was later extended so that those who intend to rent out the properties also qualified and about a third of applications are for homes that will be leased.

To date, Meath County Council has received 414 applications with roughly two thirds being for homes in rural areas and a third being urban. The breakdown of applications per area is Kells 120; Trim 91; Navan 89; Laytown/Bettystown 57; Ratoath 38 and Ashbourne 19.

A total of 299 grants have been approved to date with 115 approved in principle.

To date a total of 137 grants to the value of €16m have been approved where work is either completed or ongoing and €8.55m has been paid out. The reason the sum paid out is lower is because the grant is paid after the works are completed and these works can take a year or more to complete.

Each year the council will also look at houses that have been vacant a long time, where there is no engagement, and where the houses are in reasonably good condition and buy them on behalf of housing department before they become derelict. The Council has a target of acquiring six properties each year and since 2023, has acquired a total of 17 properties. It is now looking at its next batch of ten properties that may be suitable for acquisition.

Separate to the vacant homes register, there is also the derelict sites register. When complaints are received by members of the public about derelict sites, they will be investigated and so far this year 45 were investigated and statutory orders were issued in relation to 25 properties.

Where engagement fails, the council may move to notify the owner of its intention to add the property to the derelict sites register. At this point the owner will be liable to pay derelict site levies (currently seven percent of property value) and Meath County Council collects an average of €56,000 in levies each year.

There are currently 34 properties on the registered in Meath with seven added to the register this year and six removed.

It can be a challenge for the council to locate the owner of a derelict property and sometimes they are unwilling or unable to carry out the works and then the council may look at compulsory acquisition. A total of 13 properties have been subject to this process.

For example, Meath County Council acquired 15 and 16 Haggard Street in Trim through the Derelict Sites Act a number of years ago and work is commencing on a scheme to provide four age friendly houses on the site so those properties will soon be removed from the register.

New Lane Cottages, Abbeylands, Navan, were also acquired by the council in this way and a housing scheme is being developed for that site.

Three properties in Kells- two at Church Hill and one at Maudlin Street- were also acquired by the council so quite a number of sites on the register are now in the council's ownership.

The derelict Doyles Garage and adjacent listed house in Drumconrath were also compulsorily acquired. The garage has since been demolished and removed from the derelict sites register and there are plans for a village plaza and amenity area pending funding being secured for the project.

The house remains on the register as work has not begun on it yet but funding has been secured to refurbish it in as a community facility with cafe on the ground floor and offices for small enterprises or start ups upstairs. Detailed design is being finalised and with tender documents expected to issue in the new year.

The council has also recently moved to acquire the hall in Rathmolyon under the Derelict Sites Act which was entered on the register in November 2025 with a view to refurbishing it as a community amenity.

The process has been initiated in relation to a property at Kenlis Place Kells beside the St Vincent de Paul Theatre which is due to be decided upon later this month by An Coimisiún Pleanála and the council just last week published a notice of its intention to acquire a property at Circular Road Kells through the Derelict Sites Act.

There have also been success stories where the council has engaged with the property owner and they have proceeded to refurbish properties. An example of this is a fire damaged house in Drumconrath that was first investigate by Meath County Council in November 2019 and added to the register in February 2020. The site was sold in November 2022 with planning secured for three age friendly home. The property was demolished and removed from the register in 2025 and the new houses were built on the site and are now on the market.

A retail property in Longwood that was on the register from October 2021 was sold and refurbished by the new owners and subsequently taken off the register in April of this year. A prime site in Clonee, formerly a bookmakers, was taken off the register after being demolished with planning approved for a mixed-use development on the site.

Some sites remain on the list but are currently subject to planning such as the Old Mill Hotel site in Julianstown where a planning application was granted but is currently with An Coimisiún Pleanála following an appeal. Another site in Dunshaughlin's Main Street has planning permission but has not yet been developed and remains on the register.

In some cases, the council will acquire a derelict property and if there is no demand for housing in a particular area or the property is unsuitable or not economically viable to refurbish, they will sell it on again. An example of this is a derelict cottage in Drumconrath that was acquired and then sold by the council and has since been refurbished by the new owner. Another property acquired by the council in Rathkenny was put up for sale and is now sale agreed.

Looking at national figures, Meath has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country at 2.4 per cent, behind Dublin (1.4 per cent), Kildare (1.6 per cent) and Waterford (2.2 per cent). The figure for Meath is well below the national average of 3.7 per cent. In terms of derelicts, Meath has 1.6 per cent of the total number of derelict sites in the state.