Offaly has highest level of empty units in Leinster

Tadhg Carey

Published: Fri 28 Aug 2026, 3:32 PM

Offaly had the highest rate of commercial vacancies in Leinster during the second quarter of the year.

That’s according to the new GeoDirectory Commercial Vacancy Rates Report, released this week, which found the commercial vacancy rate in Offaly was 15.6% in June, higher than the national average of 14.5%.

The survey was based on three towns in Offaly: Tullamore, Birr and Edenderry.

At 27.1%, Edenderry had the highest rate of commercial vacancies of any town in Leinster and was the fourth highest nationwide, behind Shannon in Clare (34.9%), Ballybofey in Donegal (34.5%) and Roscommon’s Boyle (30.1%).

The rate of vacancies rose by 0.5 percentage points in Edenderry, from 26.6% for the same period last year.

Of the other urban areas in Offaly surveyed, Tullamore recorded a commercial vacancy rate of 18.8%, down from 18.9% from June 2025, while Birr’s rate dropped from 15.5% to 14.4%.

Nationally, the commercial vacancy rate dropped marginally by 0.1 percentage points (pp) year-on-year to 14.5%. This is the first time the commercial vacancy rate has experienced an annual decline since GeoDirectory began reporting this data in 2013.

In Offaly, the rate of decline was identical, down 0.1 percentage points from 15.7% in June 2025.

A total of 30,611 commercial properties were classified as vacant across the country in Q2 2026. The highest commercial vacancy rates were concentrated in the West and North-West of the country. Donegal recorded the highest vacancy rate in the State at 20.7%, meaning more than one in five commercial properties in the county lie vacant. Sligo (20.2%), Galway (18.6%), Leitrim and Limerick (both 18.1%) made up the remainder of the top five highest county vacancy rates, with all five Connacht counties featuring in the top seven nationwide.

At the other end of the spectrum, Meath recorded the lowest commercial vacancy rate in the country at 9.9%, the only county under the 10% mark. Thirteen counties had a vacancy rate below the national vacancy rate of 14.5%.