Commercial vacancy rate in Laois drops slightly

The commercial vacancy rate in Laois has fallen slightly, according to GeoDirectory's latest report. 

Laois was one of five counties that experienced a reduction with vacancy levels in commercial properties falling from 15% at the end of 2022 to 14.8% in December 2023. 

Of the towns in Laois analysed, Mountmellick had the highest commercial vacancy rate in the final quarter of 2023 at 21.3%, while Portarlington had the lowest at 13.4%. 

The commercial vacancy rate in Portlaoise stood at 15.5 per cent. 

Last year Laois had 274 occupied address points recorded, down lightly from 278 in 2022. 

There were 2,466 occupied units in the county with a NACE code which is used to classify units by economic sector.

The report outlined how Laois was the county with the highest share of public administration premises, outside of Dublin, at 3.2%. 

According to the report the majority of commercial premises in Laois were occupied by services (47.1%) followed by retail and wholesale businesses (25%), health (8%), construction (4.6%), industry (5.2%), education (5.2%) and financial (1.6%).

 

The commercial property vacancy rate nationally has increased to its highest level since GeoDirectory started tracking the data a decade ago. The vacancy rate increased by 0.3 percentage points to 14.3% in the year to the end of December.

Commenting on the findings of the GeoDirectory Commercial Buildings 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.”

Annette Hughes, Director at EY Economic Advisory, said, “The latest Commercial Buildings Report finds that vacancy rates have continued to increase, with 20 out of 26 counties recording an increase in commercial vacancy in Q4 2023. Businesses have been impacted by a series of factors over recent years which have led to challenging trading conditions for many and so this increase is not unexpected. On a more positive note, the continued easing of inflation, ongoing reductions in energy prices and the anticipated cuts in interest rates should hopefully provide some relief for businesses this year. Longer term, strategic policy measures such as the forthcoming revision of the National Planning Framework offer an opportunity to influence future growth patterns, incentivising population and development into areas with particularly high vacancy rates.”