Cork City council has purchased 96 apartments for social housing in a development at Atkins Hall, Lee Road, Cork City for a fee of €25,365,000. This apartment development has been on the market for 7 or 8 years but has had poor sales because it is located in a former mental institution and my fellow Corkonians being a somewhat superstitious lot were none too keen to move into the building. Step forward Cork city council to bail out the developers by buying up all their unsold stock at an average cost of €264,218.75 per apartment. Rumour has it that the council will allocate the apartments to elderly tenants living in larger accomodation elsewhere in the city to free up these larger houses for families.

While any attempt to reduce housing waiting lists should be applauded you would have to question the timing.

Full details in the council meeting minutes at the link below (item 3.12)

http://www.corkcity.ie/ourservices/corp ... 502081.pdf

€264,218 for an apartment in Cork is very expensive.
I hate seeing my taxes being spent bailing out landbanker scum.

I have said this before in relation to AH, is this a case of bailing out developers?

Market forces will make a better job of saving tax payers money by decreasing prices instead of this shambles.

Is this to be the next of it where all the developers in the country are bailed out by a suspect government with tax payers money.

We need to get these f*****s out of office and the sooner the better

Words can't describe how sickening it is to read that document. Gombeenism at its very worst.

€265,000 a pop, wholesale price. The gombeens have out-done themselves.

This was announce last year. The apartments are being considered for elderly residents even though there is no bus route or shop in the area. Apparently the development also suffers from vandalism/burglary issues.
This plan falls short on almost every area, the wrong price, for the wrong properties for the wrong tenants.

Firstly, this news is about a year old. Secondly, the new apartments are definitely going to be used to house the elderly downsizing from semi-detached gaffs. Thirdly, these places are currently starting at €185,000 for the smallest 1-bedroom gaffs.

Housebuyer said,



Still way too expensive, if they havent sold in the last number of years as per a previous post then why pay so much?

Put it this way if you could,nt pay your mortgage because you gambled all your money on a property bubble do you think the government will pay it for you? Will they F***, this is tantamount to stealing from the people of Ireland to line to pockets of F/Failure sponsors and trying to disguise it by buying shite with no transport, no shop and liable to vandalism its unbelievable.

The price would be a rip-off due to location & distance from essential services but then add in the fact that the place is a forbidding gothic building. I don't believe in ghosts but if they did exist, it's the one place you'd be sure to find them.
As mentioned, it's a former mental asylum and there was always a reputation of misery & fear associated with the place. Now they want to house elderly people there. The very people who would most fear the place.

A mate of mine lives in the apartments behind and he can confirm that petty crime is a serious issue there. Car break-ins are regular and the apartments themselves are not maintained at all. The place is well on the way to becoming a Cork version of Ballymun. It's a scumhole in the making and yet they think an average quarter of a million in tax payers money is good value for an apartment there.

Both Councils around Cork City have been buying housing stock for years, theres nothing new in this.
There is no more available land to build this volume of social housing in the Cork City Council area (City Boundary is a joke and 40years old) so they are left with little option if they want to get housing units in their functional area.
Would you prefer the City Council to go out to tender and build this many units and do you honestly believe it would be any cheaper? Where would they build them? Out in the country miles away from where these elderly people they are looking to rehouse live?
This location is next to some of the oldest council housing stock in the city and would free up a lot of 3 and 4 bed semi detached houses that a lot of single and elderly couples are currently living in which could then in turn be used to house young couples/families on the waiting list.
As for it not being near a bus route, for anyone that knows the Blarney St/Nth West side of the city, knows that no city bus routes run up that area servicing the elederly population up there anyway. (Laneways, hills, twisty roads simply not possible with the current type of city buses, a disgrace BTW that CIE don't do something about it)
Seriously a great idea to get housing for those on the waiting list and shows the council being imaginative in tackling the housing waiting list. Would you prefer to get them to build new on a green field site or pay through the nose to buy the land and build on a brownfield site? Where would you get these sites near to where a lot of the old council housing stock is?

There were issues with people damaging cars, but that was three years ago and hasn't happened since. The apartments are still decently maintained (lift works, grass is cut, walls painted, etc). As for the apartments becoming a Cork version of Ballymun? Cop yourself on. The apartments are privately owned and other than noises issues from the occasional party, there's no crime/anti-social problem there.

Lots of people have very positive things to say about it on AAM http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread ... ver+towers

Having spent time there, I won't say that the place is perfect, but I would certainly have no qualms about living there if I was in Cork again.

Oh, as for the bus route thing, I would expect that to happen sooner rather than latter.

+1. You're spot on.

The apartments are unsuitable for the elderly.
Downsizing homes for the elderly should be reasonably accessible by wheelchair - in case some of them ever do require it. The apartment scheme is very much unsuitable for this - there are significant flights of steps up the the doors, there are steps at the door, and the entrance areas cannot accommodate wheelchairs turning etc.

Also because it is an old building the single glazing has had to be retained - the apartments are cold and lose heat quickly. The only heating is electric storage heating and this cannot be upgraded to gas, CHP etc. - so heating is ineffective and expensive. Again unsuitable for the elderly.

As housing for the elderly the city council has bought a pig in a poke.

There is a big difference between the need to buy and over-paying for these properties.
To try and sell this as any thing other than a disgrace is just trying to ignore the fact that the council is seriously over paying for these apartments.

How long is this place on the market?
Why when it was developed was there no consideration for elderly/disabled in the design?
Are they actually allowed to purchase it without taking into account the needs of people who are infirm or may become so.
Are there not Irish or European Laws governing this?

This is typical F/Failure gangsterism.