Commercial vacancy rates down slightly

Commercial vacancy rates in Galway have decreased slightly, from 15.2% in Q4 2014 to 15.1% Q4 2015, according to new research published by GeoDirectory.

The total number of occupied commercial premises in Ireland increased throughout 2015 from 194,642 in Q4 2014 to 195,803 in Q4 2015.

The new research is from the Q4 2015 edition of GeoView which is published twice a year. It is the third annual review of commercial vacancy rates in Ireland that not only provides national data but also analyses the data by quarter, by county, by province and across a broad range of sectors in the Irish economy.

At 49,809 Dublin had the largest number of unique commercial address points followed by Cork (25,627) and Galway (12,877). In 2015, Leitrim, Longford and Carlow had the lowest number of commercial address points with less than 3,000 units in each county, as was the case throughout 2013 and 2014.

The review found that the national average commercial vacancy rate in Q4 2015 was 12.6%. This figure represents a decrease in commercial vacancy of 0.2 percentage points since Q4 2014. Kerry recorded the lowest vacancy rate of any county in Q4 2015 at 9.2%; while Sligo recorded the highest at 16.4%. Both counties held the same rankings in Q4 2014. The average commercial vacancy in Connacht went from 14.7% in Q4 2014 to 14.8% in Q4 2015.

The data was published by GeoDirectory which was jointly established by An Post and Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) to create and manage Ireland’s only complete database of commercial and residential buildings. These figures are recorded through a combination of the An Post network of 5,600 delivery staff working with OSi.

According to Q4 2015 figures, there were 224,003 commercial properties in Ireland, 28,200 of which were vacant. The largest percentage point increase was seen in Leitrim where the vacancy rate increased by 0.6pp to 16.1% between Q4 2014 and Q4 2015.

Conversely, the largest decrease was seen in Carlow where the vacancy rate fell by 1.2pp to 11.9%. Both Cavan (11%) and Tipperary (11.9%) showed the same vacancy rate in both Q4 2014 and Q4 2015.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.