Edenderry has Leinster's highest level of commercial vacancies

Edenderry has the highest rate of vacant commercial units in Leinster, with more than one in every four premises (27.5%) lying idle at the end of 2020.

That's according to the latest GeoView Commercial Property Report published by GeoDirectory and EY-DKM today.

The Offaly town had the country's highest commercial vacancy rate at the end of 2019 but its level of vacancies decreased by 1.5% during the course of last year.

It now has the second-highest rate of commercial vacancies nationally, behind Ballybofey in Donegal, where 29.2% of commercial units were empty at the end of last year.

Elsewhere in the county, Tullamore had a commercial vacancy rate of 16.9%, while the figure in Birr was 15.5%. Across the country as a whole, 13.5% of commercial units were vacant.

GeoDirectory said the findings of its report suggested that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the commercial property landscape in Ireland has not yet been fully realised.

However, key trends and indicators are beginning to emerge, with an increase in commercial vacancies recorded in 19 counties in the final quarter of 2020, when compared with the same period a year earlier.

The seven counties with the highest commercial vacancy rates were all located along the west coast of Ireland, with almost one-in-five commercial properties vacant in Sligo (19.9%), the highest in the country.

With the exception of Kildare (14.4%), all counties in the Greater Dublin Area registered commercial vacancy rates lower than the national average, with Meath (10.1%) recording the lowest rate. In the capital itself, the vacancy rate fell marginally by 0.1% to 11.9%.