116 refusals of social housing in city in 2025
Cork City Council received 116 refusals of social housing from people on the social housing list in 2025, a drop in refusals compared to the last two years.
The figures were released to Cork City councillor Noel O'Flynn by Acting Director of Services for Housing Martina Brodrick, at the latest full meeting of Cork City Council on Monday 12 October.
In 2023, the council received 130 refusals, while in 2024, there were 120 refusals.
Of the reason given for the refusals, the majority - 62 - were necause the applicant deemed the accommodation suitable to their needs.
The next highest cohort, with 36 refusals, were those who were no longer interested in their area of choice when an offer was made.
Only two applicants refused an offer of social housing more than once last year, both as a result of the accommodation being unsuitable for their needs.
A record of refusals in 2026 has been released as part of the Chief Executive's Monthly Management report since April this year. Between April and August there have been 62 refusals.
Martina Brodrick said that each refusal recorded does not relate to an equivalent number of properties, as a property can be refused more than once by different applicants.
Most offers of social housing were allocated following an advertisement on the Choice Based Letting (CBL) system, though a number of properties, such as those adapted for people with special needs or for older people, were offered outside of this system.
"Applicants who are offered a property outside the CBL system will not have the same level of information as an applicant offered a property through CBL, e.g. photographs regarding the property; they may, therefore, have practical reasons for refusing an offer such as the property not meeting all their medical needs," said Brodrick.
Increase in relet time
The broader picture of Cork City Council's ability to relet properties in a timely fashion show an increase so far in 2026 compared to 2025.
In its Performance Indicator Report 2025 published last month, the National Oversight and Audit Committee (NOAC) found that Cork City Council turned around social housing units at an average rate of 23.33 weeks, which was a 9.84 week improvement compared to the average in 2024.
The NOAC report also found that the average cost to relet properties in 2025 was €21,541.42.
However, since January 2026, the average time it take to relet a property has risen to 33.38 weeks, surpassing 2024 levels, with an average cost of €22,401.13 per unit, an increase compared to 2025 of €859.71.
This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.