296 new residences but Mayo has high vacancy rate

SOME 296 new residential address points were added to the GeoDirectory database in 2021 in Mayo, while a further 424 residential buildings were under construction in the county in Q4 of last year.

Mayo, however, has a high residential vacancy rate - 11.9% in Q4. The national average is 4.4%.

The report, published by GeoDirectory and prepared by EY, found the average residential property price in Mayo was €171,711 in the 12 months to October 2021, while Westport was the town with the highest average price at €229,658.

A total of 2,924 residential address points were classified as derelict in the county at the end of last year.

In total 18,047 new address points were recorded in Ireland in 2021, with over a quarter located in Dublin (29.6%), a year-on-year decrease of 26% in the capital.

Following the temporary closure of construction sites in early 2021 due to Covid-19 , residential construction activity rallied strongly in the second half of the year.

The three counties with the highest residential vacancy rates in Q4 2021 were found in Connaught, which had a province-wide vacancy rate of 9.2%, down 0.2ppts on Q4 2020. Leitrim remained the county with the highest residential vacancy rate at 13.3%. After Leitrim, Mayo (11.9%) and Roscommon (11.6%) recorded the next highest vacancy rates.

On dereliction, in December 2021, there were 22,096 derelict residential units across the country. This represented a 7.3% drop in the number of units since December 2016.

The bulk of derelict address points are located along the west coast of Ireland, with the highest percentage share of the national total found in Mayo (13.2%), followed by Donegal (12.0%) and Galway (8.8%).

The average residential property price in Mayo was €171,711 in the 12 months to October 2021, with a total of 1,216 transactions taking place.

Commenting on the findings of the latest Residential Buildings Report, Dara Keogh, CEO of GeoDirectory, said: “Covid-19 has proved to be a substantial speed-bump for the delivery of housing supply in Ireland. The knock-on impact of the closure of construction sites in early 2021 can be seen in the relatively low number of new address points added to the GeoDirectory database, which was down 17.4% on the previous year. However, residential construction activity has rebounded strongly since reopening fully in April, with 19,495 buildings recorded as being under construction in Q4 2021, the highest figure recorded since we started this report in 2014. This indicates a strengthening residential supply pipeline going into 2022.”

Annette Hughes, director, EY Economic Advisory, said: “The level of housing supply coming onto the market in 2021 was well short of what was needed to meet demand. While the data around residential construction activity in the latter half of 2021 is extremely encouraging, there is still exceptionally high levels of demand in the housing market. This is evident from the significant increase in the average house price, up 9.4% nationally, with price increases recorded in every county.

“Based on our analysis for this report, the 90,158 vacant residential properties and the 22,096 derelict residential properties across Ireland should be investigated to ascertain if they can be returned to the housing stock, a move which would also support our retrofitting targets.”