The residential vacancy rate in Galway was more than a third higher than the national average in the last three months of the year
The latest report from GeoDirectory and EY Residential Buildings Report shows that Galway had a 6.2% residential vacancy rate in Q4 2021, compared with a 4.4% national average.
There were 855 new residential addresses in Galway registered by GeoDirectory last year, down 20% on 2020, and a further 853 residential buildings under construction in the final quarter of the year.
The average property price in Galway was €270,671 in the year leading up to last October. In Galway City that rose to €312,462.
On top of those properties that are fit for people to live in, there were 1,946 residential addresses classified as derelict in Galway in the latest 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.”
Nationally there were 18,047 new address points recorded in Ireland in 2021, with over a quarter located in Dublin (29.6%), a year-on-year decrease of 26% in the capital.
At 48.9%, almost half of the total of new addresses were found in the Greater Dublin Area of Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow.
In Galway there was a 23.8% reduction in construction activity last year, the sharpest contraction seen anywhere in the country.
Despite this, Dara Keogh said that there is a positive outlook overall, with 19,495 buildings recorded as being under construction in Q4 2021 nationwide.
This is the highest quarterly figure seen since GeoDirectory and EY began compiling this report in 2014.
Annette Hughes, Director at EY 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”.
