Report highlights vacant commercial property levels

ALMOST 14 per cent of commercial properties in Dublin are lying vacant according to statistics in a new report released earlier this month.

City Quay has the highest commercial vacancy rate with seven of its 25 units empty while all eight commercial properties on College Street in Dublin 2 are occupied.

On the Northside, O’Connell Street Upper has a vacancy rate of 18.6 per cent and Parnell Street’s rate is 14.7 per cent. At the other end of the scale Henry Street’s vacancy rate is 4.2 per cent with just 15 of its 357 commercial properties empty while on Jervis Street the rate is 2.1 per cent with 137 of 140 units occupied.

According to the GeoView report a total of 6,776 of the 48,962 commercial addresses recorded in Dublin in Q1 2014 were vacant – a commercial vacancy rate of 13.8 per cent.

The national commercial vacancy rate is 12.4 per cent, a percentage point increase on the 11.4 vacancy rate recorded at the same time last year.

This report includes an analysis of commercial vacancy rate of 12 of Dublin’s main shopping centres and 17 high streets.

Notable vacancy rates recorded in local shopping centres included Northside (25.7 per cent), Omni Park (11.2 per cent), The Pavilions (8.5 per cent), Donaghmede (9.7 per cent), Clarehall (9.1 per cent), Ilac Centre (6.3 per cent), Blanchardstown (3.9 per cent) while Jervis Street is fully occupied.

As expected, Dublin had the highest number of unique commercial address points in the country (21.9 per cent or 48,962). This is followed by Cork (11.7 per cent or 26,070 ) and Galway (5.7 per cent or 12,783).

The GeoView report uses an

‘address point’ as a unit as opposed to a

‘building’ which can comprise one or more units.

Commenting on the report findings, Dara Keogh, CEO, GeoDirectory, said:

“With this first review of commercial vacancy rates in selected shopping centres and high streets in Ireland, we are providing fresh and insightful data and valuable indicators of the economic wellbeing of the domestic Irish economy, particularly the retail sector.

“Our findings illustrate that there are certainly parts of the country that are feeling the effects of the economic downturn more keenly than others.

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Annette Hughes, director of DKM Economic Consultants, added:

“This is the fifth comprehensive report on the commercial building stock across the country.

“By examining data from a number of the major shopping centres and high streets across Ireland, the GeoView report gives its readers a snapshot of the vacancy situation in the retail building stock in key urban locations in Ireland in Q1 2014.

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The GeoView Commercial Premises Vacancy Report is published on a quarterly basis by GeoDirectory and DKM Economic Consultants, tracking commercial vacancy rates nationally and by county.

A copy of the report is available at www.geodirectory.ie and www.dkm.ie.