Darragh Keogh, CEO of GeoDirectory
COMMERCIAL vacancy rates in Donegal have increased, from 13.8 per cent in 2014 to 14.2 per cent 2015, according to new research published by GeoDirectory today.
The new research is from the Q4 2015 edition of GeoView which is published twice a year. It is the third annual review of commercial vacancy rates in Ireland that not only provides national data but also analyses the data by quarter, by county, by province and across a broad range of sectors in the Irish economy.
It shows that of a total of 9,251 commercial addresses in Donegal in 2014, 1,280 of these were vacant. In 2015, there were 9,337 commercial addresses listed of which 1,324 were vacant.
The commercial vacancy rate declined in 16 counties during 2015 – 10 of those were in Leinster and 3 were in Munster. However a number of counties in Connaught and Ulster, including Donegal, have yet to recover and are still showing an increase in vacancy rates. The average commercial vacancy in Ulster increased from 12.5 per cent in Q4 2014 to 12.7 per cent in Q4 2015, while the vacancy rate in Connacht went from 14.7 per cent in Q4 2014 to 14.8 per cent in Q4 2015. Both Munster and Leinster saw a decrease of 0.2 percentage points each between Q4 2014 and Q4 2015.
The review found that the national average commercial vacancy rate in Q4 2015 was 12.6 per cent. This figure represents a decrease in commercial vacancy of 0.2 percentage points since Q4 2014.
The data was published by GeoDirectory which was jointly established by An Post and Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) to create and manage Ireland’s only complete database of commercial and residential buildings. These figures are recorded through a combination of the An Post network of 5,600 delivery staff working with OSi.
GeoView also gives readers a breakdown of the occupied commercial stock by sector, using NACE codes. Services was the most popular sector with 84,449 of the total 180,467 properties allocated a NACE code. The Distribution sector had the next highest number of commercial address points, accounting for 23.9% of the total.
Commenting on the findings, Dara Keogh, CEO, GeoDirectory said: “The trends we saw throughout 2013 and 2014 seem to have shifted. Where in the past we saw vacancy rates increasing at varying rates, we are now seeing falling vacancy rates in many parts of the country. Connacht and Ulster still seem to be struggling, however there are strong signs of a recovery with just 8 counties across the country showing an increase in commercial vacancy rates year on year.”
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