Drop in vacancy rate puts pressure on housing market, new report suggests   

GeoDirectory report shows that almost 27,000 new residential address points were added to its database in a year. Stock picture

The national vacancy rate of housing stock has dropped but the number of new residential address points has also decreased, suggesting that the country is running out of available homes.

A report by GeoDirectory shows the number of new residential addresses on the database fell 22% in a year, meaning 7,402 fewer houses were added in the last year.

“While the latest report highlights a decrease in the number of new address points recorded in the last year, we have seen increased utilisation of the housing stock and an increase in the pipeline of new housing stock under construction,” said GeoDirectory chief executive Dara Keogh.

“The drop in output over the last 12 months may be due to material supply issues, inflationary pressure on the construction sector along with rising interest rates,” he said.

The tight market has driven the national residential vacancy rate to drop just under 4% in June, the lowest figure recorded to date, highlighting increased demand for housing amid the chronic shortage.

There were 81,712 dwellings recorded as vacant in the second quarter and over 21,000 residential address points recorded as derelict, down 3.5% on the same period last year.

GeoDirectory was jointly established by An Post and Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) and is comprehensive address database of dwellings in Ireland.

Its latest report shows almost 27,000 new residential address points were added to the database in the past year, equating to 1.3% of the total residential stock. However, lucrative student student accommodation developments are included in this figure.

The report also found that 22,842 buildings were under construction at end of June, up 2% in a year.

Dublin was the county with the highest proportion of residential buildings under construction at 17.2% of the national total, followed by Kildare at 15%, Cork at 10.7% and Meath at 6.7%.

Meanwhile, the report showed the average residential property price increased by 8.2% to €366,291 in the 12 months to May, with the average price increasing in every county.

The highest average property prices were recorded in Dublin, at €538,168, followed by surrounding areas including Wicklow and Kildare, as the only other counties above the national average.

GeoDirectory’s report said that just under 50,000 residential property transactions took place in the 12 months to May, of which 18.7% were for newly built dwellings.

Dublin with 14,609, Cork with 5,271 and Kildare with 3,412 had the highest number of property transactions, accounting for 47.5% of the total.

The GeoDirectory Residential Buildings Report for the second quarter was prepared with input from EY Economic Advisory.