Brief, 28 October 2026
Derelict sites in Ireland: what the council registers show.
Ireland is about to move from a derelict sites levy that councils rarely collect to a Revenue-run Derelict Property Tax. It has been proposed in the Finance (No.2) Bill 2026 at 7% of market value, self-assessed, with the first preliminary registers due on 1 September 2027. It will be built on the councils’ statutory registers, and nobody had put those in one place. We have: 2,560 properties across 24 of the 31 local authorities, matched to planning applications and to the Property Price Register, and read again every week.
Three numbers that get confused
- 19,438
- Derelict residential address points, GeoDirectory Q4 2025 (An Post field staff). The size of the problem; a commercial dataset we quote but do not hold.
- close to 19,000
- The Government's own estimate of the stock the new tax is expected to reach. The same population.
- about 1,900 to 2,100
- Properties actually entered on the statutory registers (1,913 in May 2025, per a Dail reply). We count 2,560 across 24 councils today.
The gap is the story: roughly one derelict-looking property in ten is on a register today.
What the data says
1. The registers are accelerating
Of the 2,197 entries that carry a date, 1,455 (66%) were entered since 1 January 2023: 305 in 2023, 308 in 2024, 448 in 2025 and 394 so far in 2026. Only 188 pre-date 2016, and the oldest 13 are dated 1991.
Councils appear to be listing faster ahead of the tax. A caution: a register shows what survives, so the older years are understated.
2. A listed property often sells for more than the council thinks it is worth
140 listed properties have sold at least once since being entered (158 sales in the Property Price Register). Across the 120 with a council value, the median sale price is 1.17 times that value.
- A mixed-use property in Newcastle West, Limerick, entered in February 2020 at a council value of 25,000 euro, sold in December 2025 for 180,000 euro.
- A property in Bandon, Cork, entered in June 2024 at 50,000 euro, sold on 6 October 2026 for 280,000 euro.
- A property in Ballina, Mayo, entered in January 2020 at 10,000 euro, sold in June 2022 for 70,000 euro.
- A Waterford city property, entered in 2004 at 75,000 euro, sold in 2015 for 490,000 euro.
3. Registered sites are being redeveloped
203 register properties have a matched planning application. Those that state a unit count add up to 428 homes. A Waterford entry from 2004 had an application in August 2024 to demolish a derelict dwelling and build four apartments, and it was granted.
Separately, 58 applications to demolish are on a register property, and 42 of them are granted or commenced. The proposed tax ends on remediation or clearance, which makes a demolition or redevelopment application the clearest exit signal there is.
4. The tax base is smaller and more uneven than the headline
1,305 entries carry a council value, totalling about 220 million euro, an average of 169,000 euro. At 7% that is roughly 15 million euro a year on the valued entries, which is illustrative only, because council values are not Revenue's.
Averages swing by council: Limerick about 97,000 euro, Waterford about 161,000, Fingal about 381,000 and Galway City about 748,000, pulled up by one entry at 7.5 million euro.
5. Enforcement stops early
Of 2,560 entries, 1,072 show the section 8(7) entry notice, 164 a works notice and 59 an acquisition notice. None show a vesting order in what councils publish. Councils list; they rarely acquire.
Council values are the councils’ own estimates, not Revenue valuations, so read the sale-to-value ratio as a signal and not a measure.
What the data contains
- 2,560 active entries from 24 councils. Largest: Limerick 367, Mayo 320, Roscommon 183, Waterford 166, Cork County 162, Clare 151.
- Per entry: the address, an Eircode where published, a location where available, the date entered, the council’s market value where it publishes one, the property type and the statutory notices served.
- Joins: a matched planning application, later sales from the Property Price Register, and a feed of demolition applications on register sites.
- No owner details are held. The register is about the property.
- Not covered: Monaghan, Tipperary and Wicklow (their sites block automated reading), Kerry and Longford (nothing published online), Donegal (its only file dates from 2020) and Meath (its file moved and is being re-read).
Limits
- The tax, its rate and its dates are proposed, not enacted. The Finance Bill, not this page, is the authority.
- Planning matches are cautious: an address that matches only on the street name is never shown, so the 285 links are a floor.
- Roscommon and Dublin City publish no entry dates, so they are missing from every figure about time on the register.
- This is a snapshot taken on 28 October 2026. The live counts are on the explainer page.
Sources
- Derelict Property Tax, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
- Budget 2027 factsheet, Grant Thornton
- Finance Bill 2026, property and construction, KPMG
- Residential Buildings Report, Q4 2025, GeoDirectory
- Each council’s published Derelict Sites Register, and the Property Price Register.
Not legal or tax advice.