National commercial vacancy rate in Ireland reaches 14.5% in Q4 2024, highest level on record

GeoDirectory report finds that the commercial vacancy rate increased in 15 counties in the twelve months to December 2024

GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report Q4 2024

• The national commercial vacancy rate in Ireland increased by 0.2 percentage points (ppts) to 14.5%, the highest rate recorded by GeoDirectory to date
• In total, there were 30,635 vacant commercial units across the country in Q4 2024.
• Sligo recorded the highest commercial vacancy rate at 20.6%, followed closely by Donegal (20.1%) and Galway at 18.8%.
• The lowest commercial vacancy rates were recorded in Meath (9.9%), Wexford (10.8%) and Kerry (12.3%)
• Dublin’s commercial vacancy rate stood at 13.6% in Q4 2024 a 0.5 pp increase on Q4 2023.
• Ballybofey, Co. Donegal was the town with the highest commercial vacancy rate at 36.4%
• 15 counties experienced an increase in vacancy rates, while only seven counties registered a decline

Dublin, 20 March 2025: National Commercial Vacancy Rates

The national commercial vacancy rate in Ireland increased to 14.5% in Q4 2024, according to the latest GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report, prepared by EY. This is the highest level of commercial vacancy recorded by GeoDirectory since it began tracking commercial vacancy data in 2013.

In total, 30,365 of the commercial units were vacant across the country in December 2024. The report also found that the commercial vacancy rate increased in 15 out of 26 counties.

County Commercial Vacancy Rates

With a 0.1 percentage point (pp) increase from Q4 2023, Sligo recorded the highest commercial vacancy rate at 20.6%, followed closely by Donegal (20.1%) and Galway at 18.8%.

Even though all four provinces experienced an increase in vacancy rates, four of the top six counties with the highest vacancy rates were in Connacht, continuing the trend of high commercial vacancy rates in the west of the country. The vacancy rate in Connacht reached 18.5%, an increase of 0.2 pp from Q4 2023.

Meath once again remained the county with the lowest commercial vacancy rate in the country at 9.9%, followed by Wexford (10.8%) and Kerry (12.3%).

Dublin’s commercial vacancy rate stood at 13.6%, a 0.5 pp increase on Q4 2023. Despite this being the highest level of vacancy recorded in Dublin since Q4 2016, the current rate is still below the national vacancy rate of 14.5%.

Analysis of Towns and Dublin Districts

This report examined a sample of 80 towns throughout Ireland, as well as 22 districts in Dublin, to assess the shift in commercial vacancy rates from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the same period in 2024. The report found that Ballybofey, Co. Donegal reported the highest commercial vacancy rate in Q4 2024 at 36.4%. Shannon, Co. Clare moved to second place with a vacancy rate of 30.8% with Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford (28.3%), Boyle, Co. Roscommon (27.7%) and Sligo Town (26.8%) completed the top five towns by highest commercial vacancy rate.

In contrast, the lowest commercial vacancy rates in the country were recorded in Greystones, Co. Wicklow (5.5%) and Carrigaline, Co. Cork (5.1%).

Dublin 2 had the highest vacancy rate of all Dublin districts at 18.7%, which is 4.2 pp higher than the national vacancy rate. Dublin 13 experienced the largest increase in vacancy rate, growing by 2.2 pp when compared to Q4 2023.

The Dublin postcode with the lowest vacancy rate was Dublin 15, at 6.6%.

Four out of the 22 Dublin districts recorded a decrease in vacancy rates, with the largest fall in Dublin 24 and Dublin 6, both seeing a decrease of 0.3 pp. Of the 22 Dublin districts, 18 had vacancy rates below the national vacancy rate of 14.5%.

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 180,259 occupied address points in the state in Q4 2024, 153,432 (85.1%) were assigned a NACE code, a decrease of 1,563 from Q4 2023 to Q4 2024.

The services sector, including hospitality and tourism, continued to have the largest share of commercial sites, accounting for 49.4% of the overall total. The largest proportion of this NACE code decline can be attributed to the services sector which had the largest reduction in the number of commercial units suffering a decline of 644 units.  

Within the services sector, hospitality services had the highest number of commercial units accounting for 22,095 units, 14.4% of the total. The next two sectors with the highest number of commercial units were professional scientific and technical services (7.8%), followed by arts, entertainment and recreation activities (5.8%).

The retail and wholesale sector was the second-largest sector in terms of occupied commercial sites, making up 21.9% (33,623 units) of the total NACE codes. In the year to Q4 2023, retail and wholesale units recorded a decline of 610 units across the country.

Commenting on the findings of the GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings Report, Dara Keogh, CEO of GeoDirectory, said, “The national vacancy rate for commercial properties increased again in Q4 2024, continuing the trend of recent years. At 14.5% it is now at its highest rate on record. As a country, we need to continue to prioritise innovative solutions to revitalise these vacant spaces and support businesses to avoid unnecessary vacancy where possible.”

Annette Hughes, Director at EY Economic Advisory, said, “While residential vacancy continues to decline significantly, dropping to just 3.8% in our most recent GeoDirectory Residential Report, commercial vacancy trends are going in the opposite direction. At 14.5% the rate now sits 1% higher than before the Covid pandemic, representing an increase of over 2,100 commercial units and comes despite a strong economy, growing population and record employment. There are likely many factors at play here including, changes triggered by the pandemic, evolving shopping preferences and continued cost pressures on businesses and households.”

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