Galway continues to have the second highest commercial vacancy rate in Ireland, rising to 18.5% by last December.
The latest GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report found that Galway’s commercial vacancy level continues to be well above the national average of 14.4%, and second only to Sligo’s 20.5%.
Of the towns in Galway analysed, Tuam had the highest commercial vacancy rate in Q4 2023 at 26.1%, while Loughrea had the lowest at 18.7%
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% compared to the same period in 2022.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Dara Keogh, CEO of GeoDirectory, said, “The rate of commercial vacancies in Ireland has hit a new high of 14.3%, continuing the trend of increasing rates in recent years.”
“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.”
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.
