1 in 20 homes vacant in county Cork

ONE in every 20 homes across Co Cork were vacant at the end of 2021, according to latest figures released by the Central Statistics Office.

The CSO yesterday published data on the number of vacant homes across the country at the end of 2021, based on levels of electricity consumption recorded by the ESB. A dwelling was defined as vacant by the CSO when it had very little or no electricity consumption over one full year. However, nearly seven in ten of the vacant dwellings identified (68.5%) have had low consumption for over two years.

Homes with deactivated or terminated electricity connections were excluded from the figures, so the vacancy rates should largely represent habitable dwellings that are currently connected to the electricity grid.

In Cork, there is a 5% vacancy rate across the county, and a vacancy rate of 2.7% within the city.

The 5% vacancy rate across Co Cork, meaning one in 20 homes is vacant, is higher than the national average vacancy rate of 4.3%.

The national figures showed that vacancy rates in rural areas (7.5%) were more than double the rate in urban areas (2.9%) at the end of 2021.

Just over half (52.5%) of vacant dwellings in the fourth quarter of 2021 were in rural areas, despite the fact that less than a third (30.2%) of all dwellings surveyed were in rural areas.

This trend is reflected across local election areas in Cork, as rural areas are among those with the highest vacancy rates, and were up to four times higher than the lowest vacancy rates recorded in the city centre.

Vacancy rates

The area in Cork with the highest level of vacancy is Bantry in West Cork, where 8.5% of homes are vacant. This is closely followed by other rural areas in Cork, with Kanturk having the second highest vacancy rate of 7.5%, and Skibbereen in West Cork also in the top three, with a vacancy rate of 6.6%.

The area with the lowest vacancy rates in Cork is Cork City South West, where only 1.8% of properties are vacant. Other areas in Cork with a vacancy rate of less than 3% include Cork City South East (1.9%), Carrigaline (2.3%) and Cobh (2.7%).

Comparative figures that stretch back to 2016 show that vacancy rates are generally falling across the country.

The vacancy rate in Ireland fell from 4.9% to 4.3% between the first quarter of 2016 and fourth quarter of 2021. Over the same time period, the vacancy rate in Dublin rose from 1.9% to 2.3%; the rate for the rest of Ireland fell from 6% to 5.1%.

In terms of types of dwellings, the number of vacant apartments across the country has increased since 2019, in contrast with other dwelling types.

The percentage of dwellings vacant in fourth quarter of 2021 is highest for apartments (3.7%) and lowest for semi-detached houses (1.8%).

Dwelling type is available for just under half of the total dwellings surveyed, where electricity connections could be linked to Building Energy Rating (BER) assessments.

Based on BER assessments, it was found that vacant dwellings are likely to be older. Only 6.3% of all dwellings were built before 1919 compared with 19.2% of vacant dwellings.

Using census data, the CSO also identified that vacant dwellings were more likely to be owned by older people.

Nearly four in ten (38.1%) of vacant dwellings were owned by a person aged 65 or over, compared just over two in ten (21.7%) of all dwellings.