Vacancy rate in Kildare is minimal due to housing demand

THE residential vacancy rate in Kildare was just 1.5 per cent in the final quarter of 2024 according to the latest GeoDirectory Residential Buildings Report.

This equates to just one home in 67 being vacant, and is less than half the national average of 3.8 per cent.

By comparison, the highest vacancy rate in the country was recorded in Leitrim (11.8%), while Dublin had the lowest (1.2%).

A total of 1,639 new residential address points were added to the GeoDirectory database in Kildare in 2024, while 1,438 residential buildings were classified as under construction in the county in December.

The average house price in Kildare was €412,839 in the twelve months to November 2024.

Unsurprisingly, the highest vacancy rates in the country can be found in the west of Ireland with Leitrim (11.8%), Mayo (10.6%), Roscommon (10.3%), Donegal (9.0%) and Sligo (8.2%) recording the largest proportions of vacant residential properties.

At the other end of the scale, the lowest vacancy rates were, in order, Dublin (1.2%), Kildare (1.5%), Waterford (2.1%) and Carlow (2.5%).

Nationally 34,686 new address points were recorded last year, with the highest proportion of these in Dublin with well over a third (38.1%) of the national total, followed by Cork (10.8%), Meath (5.7%) and Kildare (4.7%). Also, Kildare (1,438) was only one of six counties to manage to build more than a 1,000 homes in 2024, with the others being Dublin at 18.7% (4,162 buildings). Cork (3,002), Meath (1,312), Louth (1,141) and Galway (1,126). Construction activity was weakest in Longford where only 85 buildings were under construction, followed by Leitrim (121) and Roscommon (162).

A total of 20,092 residential address points across the state were classified as derelict in Q4 2024, with 1.3% - just 261 - of these properties located in Kildare.

The highest concentration of derelict properties was recorded in Mayo (14.0%), followed by Donegal (11.6%) and Galway (8.8%).