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About Rob Cross

Rob Cross is an Digital-twin specialist, architectural technologist, and AI & BIM/GIS expert | BIM and digital design technology specialist who is building a public, data-led project focused on vacancy and dereliction in Ireland as part of the wider housing and town-centre crisis.

What Rob Cross is doing

Building derelictsites.com and a public demo platform that turns fragmented statutory derelict site registers into a structured, map-based system that is easier to browse, filter, and understand.

Aggregating and standardising data (including address and Eircode quality) so locations can be mapped and analysed more reliably, and so councils, practitioners, and the public can see patterns and gaps.

Producing practical “decision support” outputs such as summaries, maps, and metrics like “time on register”, valuations, and levy-related figures, with the aim of making dereliction more transparent and actionable.

Championing heritage-led reuse of protected structures, with a particular focus on identifying architecturally significant and protected buildings at risk and setting out how they can be brought back into active use rather than left to decay. This includes building dedicated databases documenting the protected structures of Limerick, Cork and Dublin — capturing RPS/NIAH records, ownership, vacancy status and condition — to support conservation-led regeneration and to connect heritage protection with tackling vacancy and dereliction.

Shining a light on Ireland’s housing crisis by making the scale and cost of long-term vacancy and dereliction visible, and framing the reuse of existing buildings as a practical part of the response to housing shortage and town-centre decline.

Providing a practical, Ireland-wide funding playbook for repairing, refurbishing and reusing older vacant, derelict and heritage buildings. It brings together the main grants, tax reliefs and loans in one place and shows how they can be stacked — setting out which schemes cover what, what order to apply in, and when each one actually pays out (see c. Useful Links and Grants Available).

How does this all connect to the Irish Housing Crisis

• Rob frames long-term vacancy and dereliction as a direct contributor to housing shortage and homelessness, highlighting cases where valuable buildings sit unused for decades while emergency accommodation numbers rise.

Useful links, grants and information

Architectural Heritage: Protected Structures at Risk:

© Rob Cross 2026

About Me / Contact

🏛️ Council Registers key stats

• 🏚️ Sites on register tracked (across 20 County and City Councils): 2,069
• 💰 Sites on register with valuation (where data available): 1,569 (75.8%)
• 💶 7% Levy due (where available and excludes interest at 1.25% per month on the outstanding amount): €61,390,036
• 🕰️ Longest on register (oldest entry date across): DS10/13(b) - George Street, Killala, Co Mayo — 1991-07-15 (34.9 years)
• Average weeks on register: 211.9
• Average years on register: 4.1

This page compiles sites where the recorded/estimated levy due exceeds the recorded valuation (based on the council register databases).

Levy > Valuation — Flagged Sites

Top 10 longest-on-register sites (by council register)

👇 Select a council below to open its live register database:

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Cork County Council:

1.0 Cork County Council — Derelict Site Register :

Sites on register tracked: 146 Levy due: €3,052,350

Average weeks on register: 229.0

Average years on register: 4.4

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Cork City Council:

2.0 Cork City Council — Derelict Site Register :

Sites on register tracked: 154 Levy due: €13,978,385

Average weeks on register: 290.0

Average years on register: 5.6

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Dublin City Council:

3.0 Dublin City Council — Derelict Site Register :

Sites on register tracked: 139 Levy due: €12,049,870

Average weeks on register: 228.3

Average years on register: 4.4

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