Kevin Galvin
Despite the pandemic, three South-East counties now have fewer vacant commercial properties this year than last.
That's according to Geo Directory's Commercial Property Report for the last quarter, which says the total number of vacant commercial properties nationwide has increased in the past year.
18 of the 26 counties in the Republic saw an increase in commercial vacancies, including Carlow, which increased by 0.1%, while Tipperary's vacant commercial properties have increased by 0.3% - the Premier is also the county with the highest vacancy at 14.5%, and has the highest PUP takeup across the South-East this week.
However, it's a brighter picture in Waterford (-0.2%), Wexford (-0.3%) and Kilkenny, whose 0.4% reduction in vacant properties is the second best in the country, behind only Laois.
The total figure outside of Tipp shows that 14.3% of commercial properties remain vacant in the Déise, with the figure at 14% in Carlow, 12% in Kilkenny, while just over a tenth of properties in Wexford are vacant, the least in the region.
The province of Leinster also has the lowest commercial vacancy rate at 12.7%, with the west of the country experiencing the highest number of empty commercial properties.
"The East/West divide shows that Kilrush in County Clare has nearly a 26% vacancy, Mayo/Ballina has 25%, so those are very high levels of vacancy.
If you think about it, that's one in four - you're not going to miss that."
