Mary has submitted a proposal to Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien TD, calling on the government to invest €100 million into accelerating the delivery of affordable homes to rent and buy in Dublin City through the adaptive reuse of vacant commercial properties.

Currently, Dublin City is experiencing a vacant commercial property rate of 13%. This is the highest level in Dublin City since Q4 2016. Mary’s proposal calls for these vacant properties to be turned into affordable homes for people to rent or buy in the city and that a minimum of 1,000 affordable adaptive reuse homes are delivered in the first 12 months of its implementation. This will increase the supply of affordable homes where they are desperately needed and will regenerate urban communities.

The fastest and most sustainable way to increase our housing supply is to reuse existing vacant properties. The adaptive reuse of vacant commercial properties would positively contribute to our climate action goals and will lead to social and economic regeneration.