Ballybofey has again been ranked the town with the highest commercial vacancy rate in Ireland.
More than a third (36.4%) of commercial buildings in the town were lying empty when sampled in the fourth quarter of last year. It showed an increase of seven percentage points since the same period in 2023, according to the latest GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report.
However, locals claim some units in the town are ‘deliberately’ left vacant and owners choose not to advertise them for rent or sale.
Shannon, Co Clare, moved to second place, nationally, with a vacancy rate of 30.8% with Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford (28.3%), Boyle, Co. Roscommon (27.7%) and Sligo Town (26.8%) complete the top five towns by highest commercial vacancy rate.
Buncrana and Bundoran had the lowest vacancy rates in Donegal at 14.3% each while Letterkenny is at 26.3%, an increase of 0.4%.
Services accounted for nearly half (47.8%) of the total occupied units in Ulster. The highest share of this was in Bundoran (75.1%), followed by Donegal town (52.8%), Buncrana (52.5%), Ballybofey (52.1%), and Letterkenny (51.3%).
Sligo was the county with the highest commercial vacancy rate at 20.6%, followed closely by Donegal (20.1%) and Galway at 18.8%.
Commenting on the findings of the GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report, Dara Keogh, CEO of GeoDirectory, said: “The national vacancy rate for commercial properties increased again in Q4 2024, continuing the trend of recent years. At 14.5% it is now at its highest rate on record, with vacancy rates increasing in all four provinces. ”
Annette Hughes, Director at EY Economic Advisory, said, “While residential vacancy continues to decline significantly, dropping to just 3.8% in our most recent GeoDirectory Residential Report, commercial vacancy trends are going in the opposite direction. At 14.5% the rate now sits 1% higher than before the Covid pandemic, representing an increase of over 2,100 commercial units and comes despite a strong economy, growing population and record employment. There are likely many factors at play here including, changes triggered by the pandemic, evolving shopping preferences and continued cost pressures on businesses and households.”
Tags:
