Donegal has the highest percentage of holiday homes in the country, according to the latest GeoView Residential Buildings Report.
Getaway dwellings dotted around Donegal’s coastline and villages make up 11.4% of the county’s total residential housing stock, the report revealed.
The county also recorded the second lowest occupancy rate in Ireland at 78.4%, with Leitrim registering the most vacant dwellings.
A total of 1,176 residential properties were bought in Donegal in the 12 months to April 2018, 11% of these were new dwellings. The average property price was €124,575. In comparison, the average price in Dublin was €413,891.
Average house and apartment prices in Donegal regions ranged from €135,646 in Letterkenny to €117,134 in Lifford and €119,355 in Donegal Town.
Some 445 new residential dwellings in Donegal were registered to the GeoDirectory database in the 12 months to June 2018. This represents 0.5% of the total county stock.
Donegal registered the lowest residential property turnover rate in Ireland. The average housing turnover rate in the year to April 2018 was 1.4%, with the national average being 2.6%.
The greatest concentration of housing per 1,000 of the population was recorded in rural and coastal counties such as Donegal (527), Leitrim (553) and Sligo (493). The national average ratio of dwellings per 1,000 of the population was 417. The average household size in Donegal is 2.43 persons per dwelling.
Commenting on the findings of the GeoView Residential Buildings Report Q2 2018, Dara Keogh, CEO, GeoDirectory said, “The twelve months to June 2018 saw a significant increase in terms of residential construction activity. The report shows that the vast majority of this activity is taking place in Dublin and surrounding counties. However, despite this increase, house prices in urban and commuter counties continue to rise, showing us that demand is still outweighing supply by a great deal.”
Annette Hughes, Director of EY-DKM Economic Advisory Services said, “Almost one-in-five residential property transactions in the twelve months up to April 2018 involved new dwellings. While this suggests that construction activity is moving in the right direction and new dwellings are coming on stream, increasing property prices continue to signal a significant supply-demand imbalance, implying that much more work is needed to address demand levels.”
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