County by County: Where Ireland's vacant properties are

Tue, 18 Jan, 2022 - 02:00

Sean Murray

The number of vacant dwellings in Ireland stood at 90,158 last year, a new report has said.

The Residential Buildings Report for the fourth quarter of 2021 was published today by GeoDirectory, and prepared by EY.

The number of vacant properties in Q4 of 2021 represented 4.4% of the national housing stock, a marginal decrease on last year.

The counties with the highest rates of vacant properties were Leitrim (13.3%), Mayo (11.9%) and Roscommon (11.6%). Dublin had the lowest vacancy rate with 1.4%, followed by Kildare (2.1%), Waterford and Louth (both 2.8%).

Furthermore, there were 22,096 residences classed as derelict in 2021 although this has fallen 7.3% since December 2016.

The figures have been published weeks after housing minister Darragh O'Brien revealed a new grant of up to €30,000 is to be launched in the coming weeks to help people who buy derelict properties to renovate and live in.

Annette Hughes, director of EY Economic Advisory, said: “Based on our analysis for this report, the 90,158 vacant residential properties and the 22,096 derelict residential properties across Ireland should be investigated to ascertain if they can be returned to the housing stock, a move which would also support our retrofitting targets.”

The biannual report is based on GeoDirectory’s comprehensive database of over 2 million residential building records and provides a unique and up-to-date analysis of the Irish housing market.

The number of new residential address points added to the GeoDirectory database in 2021 fell by 17.4% compared to the previous year, meaning that less new builds were getting completed.

Almost three-in-ten (29.6%) of the new addresses registered were in Dublin. Overall, 48.9% of the new addresses recorded were found in Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow.

The construction sector on the other hand has “rallied strongly” in the second half of 2021 according to the report.

In Q4 of 2021, 19,495 residential buildings were under construction which is an increase of 16.5% on the figure from the same period in 2020.

An increase in residential construction was recorded in 18 counties, which high increases in Waterford (+70.2%) and Clare (+54.3%).

The number of residential property transactions also increased by 18.8% in the 12 months to October 2021, with the average property price rising in every single county.

There was a total of 2,060,749* residential dwellings across Ireland in Q4 2021, as per the GeoDirectory database. This equated to an increase of 18,323 dwellings (+0.9%) since Q4 2020.

The average national house price during the 12-month period to October 2021 was €321,596.

Ms Hughes added: “The level of housing supply coming onto the market in 2021 was well short of what was needed to meet demand.

“While the data around residential construction activity in the latter half of 2021 is extremely encouraging, there is still exceptionally high levels of demand in the housing market. This is evident from the significant increase in the average house price, up 9.4% nationally, with price increases recorded in every county.”

In recent weeks, housing minister Darragh O'Brien has promised to dramatically ramp up compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) as part of a multi-pronged approach to reducing the number of vacant homes.

In Cork, identified owners of derelict sites/buildings and those soon to be added to the list in the Cobh Municipal District Council area have been warned that they will be hit with a levy on their properties next year if they don’t start renovating them.

New additions to the database (new addresses including student accommodation) by county: