COUNTY LEITRIM WAS found to have the highest level of vacant residential properties at the end of 2024, with a rate over eight times higher than that of south county Dublin, data from the Central Statistics Office shows. 

The CSO measures residential vacancy based on the level of metered electricity consumption. It warns the data should be regarded with care due to its methodology. 

Across the twelve months of 2024, there were 70,149 dwellings in Ireland that consumed very low levels of electricity. This gave an estimated national vacancy rate of 3.2%.

Using the same metric, there was a drop in vacancy rates from the end of 2023 to the end of 2024: 2,105 dwellings deemed vacant in 2023 became occupied. Using ESB designations, the rural vacancy rate was 5.4% and the urban rate was 2.2% at the end of 2024.

Areas

It’s no surprise that, proportional to the number of dwellings in the area, Dublin had the lowest rate of vacancy – in particular the south county Dublin council area, which had vacancy rates recorded by the CSO at 0.9%.

Other populated cities like Galway, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford all had lower than average vacancy rates. Leitrim’s rate of vacancy was highest nationally at 7.8%, with 1,575 residential properties in the local authority area marked as vacant. It marked a drop from 1,699 vacant homes at the end of 2023 in the area, with a vacancy rate of 8.5%.

On a numbers basis, Cork county had the largest number of vacant dwellings at 6,632, even though its overall rate was on the lower side at 3.4%. Dublin city had 5,670 vacant dwellings, and Donegal had 5,603. 

Carlow, Galway city, and Laois all recorded less than 1,000 vacant dwellings in 2024. Galway city, an area stretched for accommodation as the number of students moving to the area rises, had 658 residential properties deemed vacant by way of electricity consumption. Laois had 963.

The local electoral area (LEA) with the highest rate of vacancy was Adare-Rathkeale in Limerick at 9.9%. Glenties in Donegal was the LEA that had the highest number of vacant dwellings at the end of 2024 with 1,615.  

The CSO observed of its data: “In 2024, we found that dwellings moving out of vacancy were more likely to be in rural areas, have higher BER ratings, be houses rather than apartments and have been constructed in more recent years.

“While for dwellings becoming vacant, they were more likely to be in urban areas, have lower BER ratings, be houses rather than apartments and have an older year of construction.”

Government has pledged to bring vacant and derelict homes back onto stream as a major housing crisis grips the country. Over €245m was disbursed through the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant from July 2022 to the end of 2025, which returned 4,514 “previously vacant or derelict homes to active residential use across the country”.