Cork’s vacancy rate is pretty average

Cork is knocking on the door of Ireland’s average residential vacancy rate, coming in just 0.3% below the national average, and well behind Dublin.

A new report by Irish address database GeoDirectory shows that the residential vacancy rate in Cork stood at 3.9% in June while the national average stood at 4.2%.

The twice-annual residential buildings report, prepared by EY Real Estate Services, recorded 2,685 residential buildings under construction and 3,118 new residential address points in Cork in the 12 months to June 2022.

A total of 86,708 residential buildings were classified as vacant across Ireland in the same period, a 5.9% drop when compared to the previous year.

Of the 26 counties surveyed, Wicklow was the only one to experience an increase in residential vacancy rate.

The highest vacancy rates in the country were found in the west and north-west of the country with Leitrim at the top of the list with 12.8%. Mayo (11.4%), Roscommon (11.0%) and Donegal (9.7%) were the other counties to post notably high vacancy rates.

Dublin recorded the lowest vacancy rate in the country at 1.5%, closely followed by Kildare (1.6%), Meath (2.5%), Waterford (2.6%) and Louth (2.6%).

In addition to vacancies, 21,897 residential address points were classified as derelict. This total was 3.8% lower than the corresponding figure in Q2 2021.

Buildings under construction

Nationally, residential construction activity accelerated in the first half of 2022, with 22,390 residential buildings under construction in June 2022, representing a 18.4% increase on the corresponding period in 2021. Of the total number, 17.4% were located in Dublin, 14.2% in Kildare and 12.0% in Cork. Notably, the year-on-year increase of buildings under construction in Kildare was 74.4%.

Sharp increase in number of new residential address points

Across the 26 counties, a total of 34,198 new residential addresses were added to the GeoDirectory database in the 12 months to June 2022. This represents an increase of 34.1% on the total recorded between June 2020 and June 2021.

Dublin had the largest share of new address points with 12,288 addresses added (35.9% of the total), followed by Cork (9.5%), Kildare (9.1%), Meath (6.7%) and Wicklow (5.2%).

Increase in residential property transactions

In Cork there were 5,135 residential property transactions in the 12 months to June, 19.6% of which were new dwellings.

The average property price in the county was €307,030.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Dara Keogh, CEO of GeoDirectory said: “The level of residential construction has increased significantly over the past twelve months as Covid-19 public health measures on the construction sector were gradually eased then removed. This activity indicates a strong pipeline of residential properties that we would expect to enter the market in the months ahead.”

The full Residential Buildings Report is available at geodirectory.ie.