Chapter 9 of 10 · Self-build, extending and renovating · 2 of 8
Buying a derelict house: the grant, the survey, the mortgage problem and a realistic budget
Checked 21 Oct 2026the Central Bank's mortgage measures, Revenue's rules and the scheme operators' published terms.
Derelict homes: the €70,000 grant, surveys, mortgageability, the derelict property tax, planning and realistic renovation budgets.
Check before you hire: a surveyor or engineer should be on the register kept by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland or Engineers Ireland. SCSI: find a chartered surveyor
Written in plain English for the person buying, selling or switching. This guide covers the Republic of Ireland only.
A derelict house is the lowest price on the market and the hardest project. The walls may be sound or they may not. The title may be clean or it may be in the names of three people who died decades ago. No lender will give you a normal mortgage on it. And a grant of up to €70,000 is on the table. This guide sets out the grant, the checks, the money problem and how to build a budget that holds.
Vacant, derelict, and why the difference matters
Vacant means empty for at least two years. Derelict means in a state of disrepair, structurally unsound, or on the council's Derelict Sites Register. A house can be vacant without being derelict; many are. For the grant, vacant gets you up to €50,000, and derelict adds €20,000. The council decides which applies, based on the register or on a surveyor's report.
The grant
The Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant is run by each council under the Department of Housing's Croí Cónaithe scheme. The rules at 21 October 2026:
| Rule | What it says |
|---|---|
| Amount | Up to €50,000, plus up to €20,000 where the home is derelict |
| The home | Empty for at least two years and built before 2008 |
| Your use | To live in as your home, or to let to a tenant; not a holiday home |
| Ownership | You own it, or are buying it; apply before the works start |
| The works | Done by a tax-compliant contractor, against quotes the council has seen |
| Staying | Five years, or ten for the full amount, or repay part |
| Runs to | The end of 2030 |
The money is paid when the works are done and inspected, not before. You fund the works first. The vacant grant guide explains the application step by step, and SEAI's energy grants can be claimed alongside for the works they cover, as long as the same cost is not paid twice.
The survey, before anything else
A derelict house needs a full structural survey by a chartered building surveyor or engineer (Engineers Ireland or the SCSI; see the structural survey page). It costs €1,500 to €3,000 plus VAT. On a derelict building the surveyor is looking for the things that make a project impossible:
- Whether the walls can be kept, or whether this is really a rebuild.
- The roof: is any of it worth saving?
- Foundations and ground: movement, water, trees.
- Dry rot and wet rot in any timber, and whether it has spread into the walls.
- Asbestos in old roofs, floor tiles and pipe lagging.
- Whether the house can be made weathertight for a reasonable sum, which is the point at which a lender might look at it.
Ask the surveyor to say plainly whether this is a renovation or a demolition. The two have different budgets, different planning and different grants.
The title
Derelict homes often have messy ownership. The last owner may have died without a will. The house may be registered to a grandparent. A neighbour may have used the garden for years. A solicitor (check the Law Society's register; see the conveyancing solicitor page) checks the title before you pay anything, and tells you whether it can be fixed, how long that takes, and what it costs. A house that needs a court application to establish who owns it can take a year before you can buy it. Some councils sell derelict homes they have taken over by compulsory purchase; those come with a clean title.
The mortgage problem
A lender lends on a home. A derelict house is not a home, so the lender cannot value it as one, and most refuse a normal mortgage on it. That leaves:
- Cash, savings or a gift to buy the house.
- A personal or credit union loan for the purchase, at a higher rate, over a shorter term.
- A self-build style mortgage, agreed on the value of the finished house, with the money released in stages against an engineer's certificates once the house is weathertight. Some lenders do this; each has its own rules. The self-build mortgage guide explains stages.
- The grant, paid at the end, which can repay a bridging loan or a personal loan.
The Central Bank limits still apply to any mortgage: up to 4 times income and 90% for a first-time buyer, 3.5 times for others. The how much can I borrow tool shows the limit. Talk to a broker (on the Central Bank's register; see the mortgage advisor page) about which lenders look at derelict projects.
The derelict sites levy
Councils keep a Derelict Sites Register. An owner of a site on it pays a yearly levy of 7% of the site's market value under the Derelict Sites Act 1990. If you buy a house on the register, you become the owner who pays until the council removes it. Ask the council whether the house is on the register and what is owed. Budget 2026 announced a derelict property tax, collected by Revenue, to replace the levy; it was not in force at the time of writing, and the changes page tracks it.
Planning
Repairing a house like for like needs no permission. A derelict house often needs more than that:
- Rebuilding walls or the roof beyond repair may count as a new build and need full permission.
- Extending beyond the 40 square metre rear exemption needs permission.
- A former shop, pub or school needs permission for change of use to a home.
- A protected structure needs permission for almost anything, and the council's conservation officer can help.
- A house that has been empty a long time may have lost its established use; ask the planner.
Ask the council for a pre-planning meeting before you buy. The planning permission guide covers the process.
A realistic budget
Renovation costs run from a typical €1,500 to €3,000 a square metre for a full refurbishment in 2026, including VAT at 13.5%, from published cost guides including the SCSI's. A derelict house sits at the top of that range or above it, because everything is replaced. These are planning figures, not quotes; a quantity surveyor (the SCSI) costs the survey's list.
| Item | Amount in a worked example |
|---|---|
| Price of a 90 square metre derelict cottage | €95,000 |
| Stamp duty at 1% and the solicitor | About €3,500 |
| Full structural survey | €2,500 plus VAT |
| Works at €2,800 a square metre | €252,000 |
| Architect and engineer | €15,000 plus VAT |
| Contingency at 20% of the works | €50,000 |
| Total before grants | About €420,000 |
| Less the vacant and derelict grant | €70,000 |
| Less SEAI grants on the energy items | Depends on the works |
| Net cost | About €350,000 before SEAI grants |
Set that against what a finished house of that size sells for on the same road, on the Property Price Register. If the finished value is €380,000, the project works on paper with a thin margin and a year of your life. If it is €300,000, it does not, and no grant changes that. Use a contingency of 20% on a derelict house; the 10% that serves a new build is not enough. The renovating guide covers the costing and the finance for a house that is in better shape.
Living through it
You cannot live in a derelict house while the works happen, so you pay rent or stay with family for a year or more, and you pay interest on any loan at the same time. The grant comes at the end. Put those months into the budget. The cost of buying calculator adds the purchase costs to the price; add the works, the fees and the months of rent yourself.
Where this leaves you
Start with the cost of buying calculator for the purchase side, and the surveyor's costed list for the rest. The vacant home journey puts the survey, the title check, the grant and the finance in order, and you can get quotes for the structural survey that decides whether the project is real.
Questions people ask
How much is the derelict property grant in Ireland?
Up to €70,000: the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant of up to €50,000 for a home empty for two years and built before 2008, plus a €20,000 top-up where the council confirms the home is derelict. You apply before the works and the money is paid when they are done.
Can you get a mortgage on a derelict house?
Not a normal one, because the house is not habitable and the lender cannot value it as a home. Most derelict homes are bought with cash, a gift, or a personal loan, and the works are funded by the grant, savings and a mortgage drawn in stages once the house is weathertight.
What counts as derelict?
For the grant top-up, a home the council confirms is derelict, either because it is on the Derelict Sites Register or because a surveyor's report shows it is structurally unsound or uninhabitable. Vacant and derelict are different: vacant just means empty for two years.
What is the derelict sites levy?
A yearly charge on the owner of a site on the council's Derelict Sites Register, set at 7% of the site's market value. A new derelict property tax collected by Revenue has been announced to replace it; it was not in force at the time of writing.
Is buying a derelict house worth it?
It can be, where the price plus the works plus the fees comes in below the value of the finished home, and you can fund the gap while the works happen. It often is not, where the structure is gone or the title is unclear. The survey and the costing decide it, not the asking price.