Commercial vacancy rate in Kilkenny decreases, while Callan shows highest vacancy rate in county

The commercial vacancy rate in Kilkenny decreased to 12.7% in December 2023, lower than the national average of 14.3%

Of the towns in Kilkenny analysed, Callan had the highest commercial vacancy rate in Q4 2023 at 18.9%, while Kilkenny City had the lowest at 14.1%.

The national commercial vacancy rate increased by 0.3 percentage points (ppt) to 14.3% in Q4 2023, the highest level reported by GeoDirectory since the report began in 2013

The commercial vacancy rate in Kilkenny decreased to 12.7% in December 2023, according to the latest GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report. The report, prepared by EY, found that this was lower than the national average of 14.3%.

At a national  level, the average commercial vacancy rate increased by 0.3 percentage points (ppt) to 14.3% in the year to Q4 2023. This is the highest level of commercial vacancy recorded by GeoDirectory since it began tracking data in 2013. In total, there were 30,046 empty commercial units across the country, with the commercial vacancy rate increasing in 20 out of 26 counties.

County Commercial Vacancy Rates
Sligo, at 20.5%, was the county with the highest commercial vacancy rate, followed by Galway (18.5%) and Donegal (18.2%). The west of the country continued to record high commercial vacancy rates in Q4 2023, with the rate in Connacht reaching 18.3%, an increase of 0.7 ppts compared to the same period in 2022.

Meath (10.1%) remained as the county with the lowest commercial vacancy rate in the state, closely followed by Wexford (10.5%) and Cork (12.2%).

In Dublin, the commercial vacancy rate increased by 0.3 ppts from Q4 2022 to 13.2%, which was the highest level recorded in Dublin since Q4 2016.

Commercial Address Points by Sector
Using NACE codes to classify units by economic sector, GeoDirectory is able to identify broad trends in the use of commercial units nationally. Of the 180,774 occupied address points in the state in Q4 2023, 154,995 (85.7%) were assigned a NACE code.

The services sector, including hospitality and tourism, had the largest share of commercial sites, accounting for 49.3% of the overall total. The services sector also had the largest reduction in the number of commercial units, recording a decrease of 636 units, which accounted for 43.1% of the total reduction in commercial properties.

Within the services sector, hospitality services had the highest number of commercial units, accounting for 22,379 units or 14.4% of the total.

The retail and wholesale sector was the second-largest sector in terms of occupying commercial sites, making up 22.1% (34,233 units) of the total NACE codes. In the year to Q4 2023, there were 548 fewer Retail and wholesale units recorded across the country.

“The rate of commercial vacancies in Ireland has hit a new high of 14.3%, continuing the trend of increasing rates in recent years," Dara Keogh, CEO of GeoDirectory, said.

"This trend can be attributed to a number of factors such as the rising cost of doing business, changing consumer habits and hybrid working. Consideration must now be given to how some of these vacant properties can be repurposed and reused, in order to avoid long-term vacancy and potential dereliction of these buildings.”

Annette Hughes, Director at EY Economic Advisory, said the latest Commercial Buildings Report finds that vacancy rates have continued to increase, with 20 out of 26 counties recording an increase in commercial vacancy in Q4 2023

"Businesses have been impacted by a series of factors over recent years which have led to challenging trading conditions for many and so this increase is not unexpected," she said.

"On a more positive note, the continued easing of inflation, ongoing reductions in energy prices and the anticipated cuts in interest rates should hopefully provide some relief for businesses this year. Longer term, strategic policy measures such as the forthcoming revision of the National Planning Framework offer an opportunity to influence future growth patterns, incentivising population and development into areas with particularly high vacancy rates.”