Retail vacancies fall but Cork situation worsens

The number of retail premises lying vacant fell considerably in the opening months of the year as a slight pick-up in sales growth enticed retailers back onto the country’s main streets.

Vacancy rates improved in six of the nine main street locations surveyed in the opening quarter of the year, with Belfast and Limerick recording the biggest improvements.

Retail sales growth across almost all sectors of 2.7% — or 0.4% when motor sales are excluded — was recorded in the opening quarter.

CBRE retail agency department senior director Simon Cooper said the national improvement reflected not just sales growth but also a more proactive approach to reducing vacancy rates.

“It’s encouraging to see an improvement in ground floor vacancy rates across the country as it is not only a sign of the increased occupier activity which we are experiencing but also of local councils and landlords becoming proactive to work towards a solution to double- digit vacancy rates in high street locations,” said Mr Cooper.

Limerick City, which had the highest vacancy rate of any of the country’s urban centres at 18.6% towards the end of 2014, saw that rate fall to below 14% in February as Tiger, Costa Coffee, and the Bodyshop all took up leases on Cruises St and the city’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell St.

The prime streets of Sligo and Athlone, Co Westmeath, also experienced a reduction of 2.3 percentage points and 2.5 percentage points to stand at 15% and 13.6%.

Elsewhere, vacancies on Cork’s St Patrick St went in the opposite direction, climbing from 18.2% to 19.5%.

However, with up to five deals imminent the situation is likely to improve in the coming months. The lowest groundfloor vacancy rate of those surveyed in Q1, 2015 is in Galway where the rate of 2.8% has prevailed for the last two years.

Vacancy rates in Dublin city centre were marginally worse at 3.2%, while rents on Grafton St rose from €4,000 per sq m at the beginning of 2014 to the current €5,500 per sq m — growth of almost 40% in a year.

Hround floor vacancy rates rose by 1 percentage points in Killarney and Kilkenny to 3.9% and 7.7%.