Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 April 2026
399. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Housing; Local Government and Heritage the number of vacant homes in the State that are valued at more than one million euro; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29277/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraData on the monetary value of vacant homes is not available within my Department.
Data in relation to vacancy is available from a number of sources, all of which use different definitions or measures for vacancy. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has developed a new statistical release on residential vacancy, based on low or zero electricity consumption over one year using data from the Electricity Supply Board. In March 2026, the CSO released data for 2024 which details a national vacancy rate of 3.2% at the end of 2024, down from 3.3% end of 2023. This equates to a figure of 70,149 vacant dwellings at the end of 2024, down from 72,254 at the end of 2023.
GeoDirectory vacancy data, jointly developed by An Post and Tailte Éireann reported that as of December 2025, 79,703 dwellings were vacant, giving a national vacancy rate of 3.7% - the lowest recorded since 2013.
Census 2022 provided a figure of 163,433 vacant homes nationwide, 7.7% of the housing stock. Under the Census, a dwelling is classed as vacant by census enumerators if it is unoccupied on Census Night, is not used as a holiday home and is not usually inhabited by occupants who are temporarily absent at the time of census. The CSO note Census vacancy data should not be used to measure long-term vacancy or the number of properties potentially available for reuse.
While there are varying indicators of vacancy based on different sources, the overall trend in vacancy levels is downwards.
