The national commercial vacancy rate in Ireland has hit a record high of 14.5% in Q4 2024, according to the GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report, prepared by EY.
This represents a 0.2 percentage point increase since the previous quarter, marking the highest rate since GeoDirectory began tracking data in 2013, with 30,635 vacant commercial units nationwide.
Regional disparities are significant. Sligo leads with a 20.6% vacancy rate, followed by Donegal (20.1%) and Galway (18.8%). Conversely, Meath (9.9%), Wexford (10.8%), and Kerry (12.3%) reported the lowest rates. Dublin's vacancy rate reached 13.6%, a 0.5 percentage point increase from Q4 2023 and the highest since Q4 2016.
While seven counties saw declines in vacancy, 15 experienced increases. Connacht had the highest provincial vacancy rate at 18.5%, with four of the top six highest vacancy counties located within the province.
Among towns surveyed, Ballybofey (36.4%) in Donegal had the highest vacancy rate, followed by Shannon (30.8%) in Clare, Edgeworthstown (28.3%) in Longford, Boyle (27.7%) in Roscommon, and Sligo town (26.8%). Greystones (5.5%) in Wicklow and Carrigaline (5.1%) in Cork recorded the lowest vacancy rates.
In Dublin, Dublin 2 had the highest district vacancy rate at 18.7%, 4.2 percentage points above the national average. Dublin 13 saw the largest increase, rising by 2.2 percentage points since Q4 2023, while Dublin 15 had the lowest rate at 6.6%.
Four Dublin districts saw vacancy rate decreases, with Dublin 24 and Dublin 6 each decreasing by 0.3 percentage points. Notably, 18 of the 22 Dublin districts reported vacancy rates below the national average.