Dublin City Council to Decide Fate of Derelict Houses, Including Connaught Street and Ferguson Road Properties

Dublin City Council will decide within weeks the future of several derelict houses, some structurally unsound, purchased since 2018 for social housing. A senior council engineer stated that some properties, like those on Connaught Street in Phibsborough and Ferguson Road in Drumcondra, should not have been bought due to their extreme dereliction.

The council acquired almost 100 private houses since 2018 to convert into social housing. However, adjoining houses at 19 and 21 Connaught Street, bought in 2019 for €700,000, will not proceed with conversion due to an «excessive» €1.7 million remedial cost. Similarly, 8 and 10 Ferguson Road, bought in 2018, face demolition due to extreme subsidence, despite emergency stabilization work in 2012.

Senior council engineer Robert Buckle noted that some properties were bought «regardless of their condition» to address the housing crisis, but argued that such purchases, incurring huge costs for conversion, do not make financial sense. The council's housing maintenance and planning divisions will meet next week to recommend actions for these unusable buildings, potentially including sale or demolition and site reuse. Council chief executive Richard Shakespeare is expected to make a decision shortly thereafter.