According to new research published by GeoDirectory today, commercial vacancy rates in Ireland have decreased from 12.8% in Q4 2014 to 12.6% in Q2 2015.
The highest vacancy rate of any county in Ireland was recorded in Sligo at 16.8%, followed by Leitrim 15.9% and Galway 15.4%. Kerry has consistently had a low vacancy rate over the past number of years and again in the latest report had the lowest commercial vacancy rate at 9.3%.
Furthermore, the research shows that Dublin has the largest share of total commercial address points, 22.1% of the national total.
The largest increase in commercial vacancy rate was seen in county Limerick with vacancy rates increasing from 13.9% in Q2 2014 up to 15%. Carlow saw a move in the other direction with the vacancy rate decreasing from 13.1% to 12.1% in the same period.
CEO of GeoDirectory, Dara Keogh said, "What we can see from the report is a continued, albeit slow recovery. As with previous editions of GeoView, we can see a trend towards declining commercial vacancy rates in the East while the West and North West of the country are continuing to struggle.
This can be clearly seen when we compare the average vacancy rates of Connacht and Leinster, Connacht’s rate is 2.5 percentage points higher than Leinster’s.
The detailed analysis of major regional towns included in GeoView also gives readers a further insight into, not only into the commercial vacancy rate, but also the distribution across the main NACE codes, which identifiesthe main industry activities in each town."
Source: www.businessworld.ie