Councils log €300 million of prime housing land lying idle

High value of such sites confirms that land hoarding has been largely unaffected by the ineffective vacant site levy

The vacant site levy was introduced to encourage owners to either develop or sell their property. The penalty started as a 3 per cent levy on the value of the land

Vacant lands worth more than €300 million, which could be used for thousands of new homes, have been identified by local authorities, according to records released to the Business Post.

Nineteen local authorities have added 224 pieces of idle land, which are prime for housing developments, to their respective vacant site registers. The sites are a mix of both publicly and privately owned lands.

The records released to the Business Post following a freedom of ...