12% of commercial premises idle

Nearly 12% of Ireland’s commercial premises are lying vacant, with that number up by 0.5% quarter on quarter, according to latest findings.

However, the study shows that Cork has the lowest vacancy rate — at 13% — of the country’s major cities.

The latest quarterly commercial premises vacancy rates report — jointly published by DKM Economic Consultants and GeoDirectory; the An Post/Ordnance Survey Ireland joint venture building database — shows that 26,648 of the 223,433 commercial premises listed in the country are currently vacant.

This is only the second such report and the vacancy rate of 11.9% is up from 11.4% for the first quarter of the year.

Unsurprisingly the cities of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford all have a higher vacancy rate than the national average; but Limerick has the highest rate among the cities, at 17.2%; followed by Galway at 15.8%.

On a county level, Sligo tops the vacancy rate table with a 15.2% reading, followed by Galway, Leitrim, and Dublin.

As well as having the lowest vacancy rate, Cork also has the lowest proportion of commercial addresses located in its city centre.

“The data implies that there may be more ribbon development of commercial buildings in Cork than in the other counties studied,” the study noted.

It also stated that Cork has the lowest proportion of its commercial addresses with NACE codes — the pan-European classification system, which groups organisations according to their business activities — located in the city.

Four counties — Kerry, Meath, Westmeath, and Wexford — recorded the lowest commercial vacancy rate across the country, at between 9% and 10%.

This time last year, IDA Ireland expressed concern about the lack of available large scale office space — particularly in Dublin — potentially forming a barrier to US companies locating in the capital. It also noted that it had held discussions with Nama regarding the potential freeing-up of commercial space to house more overseas firms.

An IDA spokesperson said yesterday that the agency continues to work closely with Nama “to match IDA clients with suitable properties in Dublin and across the country”