One in ten Galway City homes are lying empty

One in every ten homes in Galway City is lying empty, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.

Data from Census 2016 shows that the city has a total housing stock of 35,006 – of these 296 are empty holiday homes and 3,375 other homes are empty, a vacancy rate of 10.5%. In 2011, the city’s total housing stock was 33,816, including 183 empty holiday homes and 3,572 other empties, a vacancy rate of 11.1%.

The overall vacancy rate for the city had decreased by 2.2% over five years.

For the city and county as a whole, there are 17,631 vacant homes – down an overall 6.3% over the past five years.

At the moment, the total housing stock for Galway is 113,975, up 1.9% from the 111,859 recorded in 2011.

Of these, 3,977 are vacant holiday homes, and a further 13,654 are classed as vacant dwellings – that brings the total number of vacant homes in Galway to 17,631, which represents 15.5% of the total housing stock. The vacancy rate in 2011 was 16.8%.  However, that is still a decrease of 6.3% (1,190) on the 3,457 vacant holiday homes and 15,364 homes recorded in 2011.

According to the CSO, communal establishments and mobile or temporary structures are included in the preliminary housing stock figures.