Dublin Opinion

For the last year or so, we’ve heard a lot about holiday homes in terms of explanation for the size of Ireland’s vacant housing stock. The 2006 census figures, however, show that while a number of counties have a disproportionate amount of holiday homes, the overall figure for the country - 49,789 - is just over 18% of the total vacant housing units as recorded in April 2006. That figure stands at 266,322.

According to the EU housing statistics, 10.2% of the Irish housing stock was vacant in 1991. In 2002 that figure stood at 11.7%. In April 2006 it had reached 15%.

The following tables are a bit awkward, size-wise I mean, but hopefully they get the information across.