Cork has highest number of new builds last year

Cork recorded the highest number of new buildings in the country last year — but its total was still 21% less than a year earlier.

According to Geo-Directory, which records a database of commercial and residential premises, there were 1,243 new buildings in Cork last year: consisting of 1,082 residential properties, 128 commercial properties, and 32 “dual purpose” buildings. That brought the total number of properties in the county to 223,924.

The data for Cork showed 158 buildings or roughly 13% of this new commercial and residential stock is vacant. It also revealed that 241 buildings were under construction in the county at the end of the year.

Nationally, there were 7,943 new buildings in 2013 — 36% fewer than the 12,541 new buildings recorded in 2012.

The total number of buildings across the country is now 1,900,672.

Dublin was the only county to record an increase in new buildings compared to the previous year. The 964 new buildings in Dublin represent a 47% increase on last year’s figures. Every other county in the country recorded a decrease in new buildings compared to 2012. Carlow recorded the largest decrease in new buildings, with a year-on-year decline of 78%.

The 7,943 new buildings identified across the country by GeoDirectory included 6,750 residential buildings, 1,027 commercial buildings, and 166 “dual-purpose” buildings. The new data shows that 1,019 or 13% of this new commercial and residential stock are vacant. A further 1,318 buildings were under construction across the country at the end of the year.

GeoDirectory, which was jointly established by An Post and Ordinance Survey Ireland, records the figures through a combination of the An Post network of 5,600 delivery staff working with OSI. Its database is used by a variety of companies and organisations. For example, the emergency services use its information for route optimisation when responding to 999 calls.

Commenting on the latest figures, Dara Keogh, chief executive of GeoDirectory, said: “The data indicates that Dublin was the only county to achieve year-on- year growth in the number of new buildings, illustrating a widening gap which is emerging between Dublin and the rest of the country. While there were decreases in new build activity in all other counties, there were notable variations with the rates of decline ranging from 3% to 78% in individual counties.”