1,153 new addresses added to Louth's housing stock in 12 months

1,153 new residential addresses were added to the stock of residential dwellings in Louth in the year to the end of June 2022 (Q2 2022), according to the GeoDirectory Residential Buildings Report for Q2 2022, released recently.

The biannual report on the stock of residential properties in Ireland is based on GeoDirectory’s comprehensive database of over 2 million residential building records and provides a unique and up-to-date analysis of the Irish housing market.

Looking at information petaining to Louth from the report, it shows that Louth has the second highest proportion of terraced houses in the country, with 32% of the houses in the county being terraced. Dublin has the highest with 49.9% of the county total. Less than a quarter (24%) of the houses in Louth are detached dwellings with only Dublin having a lower percentage (16.1%).

In terms of construction, 1,182 were under construction in Louth in Q2 2022. It is important to note however, that these are buildings as opposed to address points or dwelling units. In the 12 months to June 2022, commencements began on 751 residential units in Louth. This is however a 35.9% year on year decrease, among the sharpest in the country.

Looking at apartments, Louth saw a 9.9% year on year increase in the number of apartment dwellings. The report defines apartments as a dwelling which exists in a building of five or more dwellings. Apartments in Louth make up 4.9% of the total residential stock in the county.

There was a vacancy rate of 2.6% in dwellings in Louth in Q2 2022, according to the report. It is among the lowest in the country, and below the State average vacancy rate of 4.2%. Louth also had the third highest occupancy rate in Q2 2022, at 97%. The remaining 0.4% of Louth's housing stock comprises holiday homes.

Unique to Geodirectory, it claims, is that it captures Ireland's derelict residential address points. A building is classified by the report as derelict if a lot of structural work/reconstruction is needed before it could be re-occupied. It is usually dormant for several years. According to the report, just 1.1% of the State's derelict address points are in Louth.

The report also looks at the 2022 Census and the change in population. It indicates that the population in Louth has increased by 8% since the last 2016 Census. It also reports that the housing stock in Louth has increased by 7.3% since 2016.

Finally, the report looks at property transactions and reveals that in the 12 months to May 2022, there was 1,294 residential property transactions in Louth. 26.4% of these were new dwellings and the average property price was €260,974. In Dundalk, 674 transactions took place, of which 29.7% were new dwellings. The average property price was €262,611.