More than 14,500 homes and commercial properties are vacant across Dublin, with 4,000 lying empty in the city centre, new figures obtained by The Irish Times show.
More than one-fifth of vacant buildings are long-term vacant – defined as being unoccupied for more than four years – with many now derelict or at substantial risk of falling into dilapidation and ruin, according to figures supplied by An Post’s data company GeoDirectory.
The analysis of vacancy levels across Dublin city and county at the end of the third quarter of last year shows that 5,746 commercial properties, 2,126 mixed-use premises (generally buildings with ground floor shops, restaurants or offices, and flats above) and 6,641 homes were vacant.
GeoDirectory identified just over 12,000 vacant properties across the capital at the end of the second quarter of 2023, indicating vacancy levels in Dublin have increased by more than 20 per cent in just over a year.
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More than 14,500 vacant properties identified across Dublin, with 4,000 in city centre
Why are so many properties derelict in Dublin city centre during a housing crisis?
Most vacant properties – 63 per cent across the capital – are now unoccupied for one to two years. These may include newly built homes and offices yet to be occupied, or can signify delays in the sales process for second-hand properties. However, 23 per cent of buildings are now vacant for more than four years.
In-depth street-level data for the city centre postcodes of Dublin 1,2, 7 and 8 – broadly defined as the area within the Royal and Grand canals – has facilitated mapping of the extent, type and duration of vacancy in the heart of the city.
Of the 4,082 buildings in this area, half are commercial, with one-third residential and just over a quarter (27 per cent) mixed. The highest number of vacant buildings are in Dublin 2, at almost 41 per cent, but three-quarters of these are commercial.
More than half of the empty properties that are flats above commercial units are in Dublin 1 – a total of 610 – with particular concentrations around the city’s largely Victorian shopping streets of Parnell Street, Talbot Street, Capel Street and Dorset Street.
The almost 1,000 empty homes, which include new apartments as well as second-hand homes, show an even spread across the city’s four postcodes.
More than 700 of the empty properties in the four postcodes have been vacant for more than four years. While not all of these buildings are derelict, they are at increased risk of dereliction.
Dublin City Council’s Derelict Sites Register includes about 60 properties in the city centre. However, the council has “active open files” on several hundred more properties in the area it is currently assessing for entry to the register, many of which overlap with the GeoDirectory list of properties vacant more than four years.
GeoDirectory managing director Dara Keogh said residential vacancy rates across the city and county, were in fact low at just 1 per cent, but conceded that was cold comfort to those looking for a home.
[ Derelict Dublin: 10 empty southside buildings in a city with a housing crisisOpens in new window ]
“There is a level of vacancy necessary for a functioning housing market, so that figure for vacant residential isn’t very high at all; in fact it’s too low, but if you’re someone who wants a home, it may not be a figure you’re happy to be seeing,” said Keogh.
[ Housing crisis unlikely to improve in short term under ‘conservative’ targetsOpens in new window ]
He said the high level of commercial vacancy in Dublin 2 and in mixed buildings in Dublin 1 was indicative of an exodus of companies from “older style” Georgian and Victorian buildings to new “brighter more eco-conscious offices”.
If this continued, it risked more city centre buildings becoming long-term vacant or derelict, he said.
“A lot of the problem there is the impression it gives. The street as a whole might be doing well, but if there is one long-term vacant building, or something that’s derelict, that can affect the whole impression of the street.”
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