Donegal commercial vacancy rate rises to 16.9% in Q4 2021

The commercial vacancy rate in Donegal increased to 16.9% in the year to Q4 2021 according to the latest GeoDirectory Commercial Vacancy Rates Report, published today.

And nationally, Ballybofey was the town with the highest rate in Q4 2021, at 30.0%.

In fact the commercial vacancy rate nationally was 13.9% in Q4 2021, the highest level of commercial vacancy recorded by GeoDirectory since the report began in 2013.
The report, prepared by EY, found that commercial vacancies increased in 15 out of 26 counties.

The highest commercial vacancy rates were recorded in the west of the country, continuing the trend observed in previous reports.

Sligo, at 20.0%, was the county with the highest commercial vacancy rate, followed by Leitrim and Roscommon, both at 17.1%. In Q4 2021, the average commercial vacancy rate for Connacht was 17.3%.

Meath (10.2%) was the county with the lowest commercial vacancy rate in the state, with Wicklow (10.4%) and Kerry (11.3%) also recording notably low rates.

In Dublin, the commercial vacancy rate increased by 1.0pp in the year to Q4 2021, reaching a rate of 12.9%. This year-on-year increase was second only to Laois, which recorded a 1.1pp increase to stand at 14.2%.

This report examined the commercial vacancy rates among a sample of 80 towns located across the state.

Of the towns in Donegal surveyed, Ballybofey had the highest commercial vacancy rate (30.0%), while Buncrana had the lowest (13.1%)

Nationally, Ballybofey was also the town with the highest rate in Q4 2021, at 30.0%. Edenderry, Co. Offaly (27.7%), Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford (26.3%), Kilrush, Co. Clare (26.2%), and Roscommon Town (24.2%) completed the top five towns by highest commercial vacancy rate.

Gorey, Co. Wexford, at 7.8%, was the town with the lowest commercial vacancy rate in the country. Greystones, Co. Wicklow (7.9%) was the town with the second-lowest rate, while Carrigaline, Co. Cork (8.5%) had the third-lowest.

In the capital, Dublin 2 recorded the largest year-on-year increase in vacancy, with a 3.1pp increase to reach a vacancy rate of 16.8%, the highest across Dublin’s postal districts. The Dublin postcode with the lowest vacancy rate was Dublin 16, at 6.8%. A total of 16 postal districts recorded an increase in their vacancy rates since Q4 2020.

Analysis of Shopping Centres (2016-2021)

For the first time, GeoDirectory compiled a nationwide sample of over 3,000 commercial units located within 68 shopping centres and analysed the change in vacancy rates in these centres between 2016 and 2021.

The analysis found that the total stock of shopping centre units remained largely static over the five years in question. However, the number of vacant units in shopping centres nationally increased from 429 in 2016 to 477 in 2021. This amounts to an 11.2% increase across the period analysed.

Commercial Address Points by Sector

Using NACE* codes to classify units by economic sector, GeoDirectory is able to identify broad trends in the use of commercial units nationally.

Of the 182,243 occupied address points in the state in Q4 2021, 87.3% of units have been allocated a NACE code.

In the year to Q4 2021, there were 556 fewer Retail and Wholesale units recorded across the country, amounting to a decrease of 1.5%.

This percentage YoY decline was only exceeded by Financial and Insurance units (-1.7%), albeit with a much smaller decrease in terms of physical units, at 74.

Looking specifically at the Accommodation and Food (A&F) Service sector, 22,656 units were classified under this sector in Q4 2021.

Kerry, with 24.2% of the county’s total commercial stock in Accommodation and Food Service units, had the highest proportion of such units in the country, followed by Clare (20.7%), Donegal (19.3%), Leitrim (18.7%) and Mayo (17.9%).