Commercial vacancy rate in Leitrim falls to 16.8% while Sligo named county with highest commercial vacancy rate

The commercial vacancy rate in Leitrim stood at 16.8% in June 2023, according to the latest GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report, issued this week, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points (pp) compared to June 2022. 

The analysis also showed that at 19.9%, Sligo was the county with the highest commercial vacancy rate.

All four provinces in Ireland reported an increase in overall vacancy rates, with Connacht having the highest rate at 17.9%, which is 3.8pp above the national average. Connacht also recorded the highest increase of the four provinces in the 12 months to Q2 2023, rising by 0.5pp. 

The analysis also found that within the services sector, the accommodation and food services sector accounted for 14.4% (22,481 units) of all commercial address points in Ireland in June 2023. Kerry, at 24.5%, was the county with the highest shares of accommodation and food services units followed by Clare (20.6%), Donegal (19.2%), Leitrim (18.8%), Mayo (17.8%) and Galway (17.8%). 

The report also found that the national commercial vacancy rate is the highest level recorded by GeoDirectory since it began reporting on the rates in 2013, with a total of 29,798 vacant commercial units recorded across Ireland.

Shannon, Co. Clare and Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford, recorded the second and third highest commercial vacancy rates in the country at 29.4% and 29.2% respectively, followed by Boyle, Co. Roscommon (27.6%) and Sligo Town, Co. Sligo (25.4%).

There were 180,809 occupied commercial address points in Q2 2023, representing a decline of 874 on the corresponding figure in Q2 2022. Of these, 86.1% were allocated to a specific sector The number of commercial units classified to an economic sector declined by 1,999 between Q2 2022 and Q2 2023. The services sector was hit the hardest, suffering a decline of 876 units, followed by the retail and wholesale sector which suffered a decline of 603 units.

The report highlights the continued importance of the services sector to the economy and although the services sector had the largest absolute reduction in the number of commercial units since Q2 2022, it still held the highest share, accounting for 49.3% of the total commercial sites across the country.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Dara Keogh, Chief Executive of GeoDirectory said: “Businesses are clearly still struggling with the increasing costs of doing business in regard to energy costs and food inflation. An additional challenge this year has been interest rate increases which are generating some pressures for commercial owner occupiers and tenants.”

Annette Hughes, Director, EY Economic Advisory said:“After several years of strong construction activity in the commercial sector, the increases we are seeing in commercial vacancy are to an extent unsurprising, with trends such as working from home, sustainability and energy efficiency likely having some impact. While there have been increases in the cost of doing business for some companies, the overall Irish economy remains in a good position, with further growth and increases in the numbers employed forecast. "