Last updated: September 2026. Human compiled and fact checked against each named source on 16 September 2026.
How many homes does Ireland have, and how many stand empty. The honest answer is that Ireland counts vacancy three different ways, and the numbers range from 70,149 to 163,433 depending on the definition. This page sets the three official measures side by side, shows where the empty homes are, what condition they are in, and what the refurbishment grants are doing about them, each figure linked to its primary source. It is part of a series with our home renovation and extension statistics, attic conversion statistics, home energy and retrofit statistics and building cost statistics.
Key Housing Stock and Vacancy Statistics for Ireland at a Glance
- Ireland’s housing stock was 2,112,121 dwellings at Census 2022, up more than 5% since 2016 while the population grew 8%. Source: CSO, Census 2022 Profile 2
- 70,149 dwellings used very low levels of electricity for all of 2024, giving an estimated national vacancy rate of 3.2%, down from 72,254 (3.3%) a year earlier. Source: CSO, Residential Vacancy Based on Metered Electricity Consumption 2024
- GeoDirectory counted 81,373 vacant residential units in June 2026, a 3.7% vacancy rate, plus 19,137 derelict properties, down 3.5% in a year. Source: GeoDirectory Residential Buildings Report, 22 July 2026
- Census 2022 counted 163,433 vacant dwellings on census night, a point in time measure that includes homes for sale, for rent and under renovation, down 11% on 2016. Source: CSO, Census 2022 Profile 2
- Rural Ireland is more than twice as vacant as urban Ireland: 5.4% against 2.2% on the CSO’s electricity measure, with Leitrim highest (7.8%) and South Dublin lowest (0.9%). Source: CSO, 24 March 2026
- Vacancy churns: 29,268 dwellings moved out of vacancy in 2024 and 27,163 became vacant, a net gain of 2,105 homes returned to use. Source: CSO, table VAC17
- Vacant homes are in worse condition than the stock: 33% of BER matched vacant dwellings are rated F or G, against 10% of all rated dwellings. Source: CSO, 24 March 2026
- 14,377 Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant applications have been approved since July 2022 and €348.6 million paid on 6,312 completed homes, 923 of them in Quarter 2 2026 alone. Source: Department of Housing, 17 July 2026
- Building is running at record levels around the vacancy debate: 36,284 completions in 2025 and 30,508 residential buildings under construction in June 2026, up 27.8% in a year. Sources: CSO, New Dwelling Completions Q4 2025 and GeoDirectory, July 2026
- Two thirds of occupied Irish homes (66.9%, calculated) were built before 2001, and 67% of the population lives in an under-occupied home, the second highest share in the EU. Sources: CSO, Census 2022, table FY033A and Eurostat, Housing in Europe 2025
How Many Homes Ireland Has
Census 2022 counted a housing stock of 2,112,121 dwellings, up more than 5% on 2016, of which 1.85 million were occupied, according to the CSO Census 2022 Profile 2. The population grew faster than the stock, 8% against 5%, which reversed the pattern of the two decades before 2011. Eurostat’s Housing in Europe, 2025 edition adds the shape: 90% of Ireland’s population lived in a house in 2024, the highest share in the EU.
The stock is growing at record pace but from a low base. The CSO recorded 36,284 new dwelling completions in 2025, the most since its series began in 2011, per the New Dwelling Completions release, and GeoDirectory counted 30,508 residential buildings under construction in June 2026, up 27.8% in a year, with 37,128 new residential address points added in the twelve months to June, per its Q2 2026 Residential Buildings Report. Even so, a record year adds well under 2% to the stock, which is why the homes that already exist, including the empty ones, carry the housing debate.
Three Ways Ireland Counts Empty Homes
There is no single vacancy number, and anyone quoting one should say which measure it comes from. The CSO states explicitly that its electricity based measure cannot be compared directly with other measures of vacancy, because each uses a different definition and data source. The three official measures are set out below.
| Measure | Definition | Reference date | Vacant homes | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSO metered electricity | Under 2kWh a day (180kWh a quarter) for at least four consecutive quarters; roughly the power of a fridge | Q4 2024 | 70,149 | 3.2% |
| GeoDirectory | An Post delivery data and field surveys of habitable but unoccupied units | June 2026 | 81,373 | 3.7% |
| Census 2022 | Unoccupied on census night, including homes for sale, for rent, under renovation or whose owner was in care | 3 April 2022 | 163,433 | 7.7% of stock (calculated) |
The gap is definitional, not a contradiction. The census counts a single night and sweeps in every temporarily empty home; the electricity measure requires a full year of near zero consumption, which is much closer to genuine long term vacancy; GeoDirectory sits between the two, combining An Post delivery data with field surveys. Census 2022 itself found that just under 48,000 homes vacant in 2016 were also vacant in 2022, the truly persistent core. A journalist quoting “160,000 empty homes” and a minister quoting “70,000” are both right on their own definitions, which is exactly why the definition belongs beside the number.
Where the Empty Homes Are
Dublin sits at the opposite end of the scale, with South Dublin at 0.9% the lowest vacancy rate in the State. The full Dublin picture is on our Dublin home renovation and extension statistics page.
Vacancy is a rural phenomenon. On the CSO electricity measure the rural vacancy rate was 5.4% against 2.2% urban in Quarter 4 2024, with the highest local authority rates in Leitrim (7.8%), Donegal (6.3%) and Mayo (6.0%) and the lowest in South Dublin (0.9%), Fingal (1.1%) and Kildare (1.4%), per the CSO release of 24 March 2026. In absolute numbers the largest stocks of vacant homes were in Cork County (6,632), Dublin City (5,670) and Donegal (5,603). At local electoral area level, Glenties in Donegal had the most vacant dwellings (1,615) and Leixlip in Kildare the fewest (71).
GeoDirectory’s June 2026 county table tells the same story on its own measure: Leitrim (11.5%), Mayo (10.3%), Roscommon (9.9%), Donegal (8.9%) and Sligo (8.3%) at the top, Dublin lowest at 1.4%, and vacancy rates down year on year in 15 of 26 counties, per the Q2 2026 report. For a Dublin builder the message runs the other way: the capital has the least slack in the country, which is why Dublin renovation demand concentrates on occupied homes being upgraded rather than empty ones being rescued.
The Churn Behind the Headline Number
Vacancy is a flow, not a fixed list of buildings. In 2024, 29,268 dwellings moved out of vacancy while 27,163 became vacant, a net 2,105 homes returned to use, per the CSO’s further detail chapter and table VAC17. The two flows look different. Homes leaving vacancy were mostly rural (69%) and mostly houses (75%), and 22% of the BER matched ones were rated A or B, suggesting renovation before reoccupation. Homes entering vacancy were mostly urban (67%), 62% were rated D to G, 47% were built before 1970, and 81% had three or more bedrooms; Dublin City alone accounted for 13% of them. Older, energy poor, under used houses are the ones going empty, and refurbished ones are the ones coming back.
The net flow has swung between the two directions over the last five years, with all annual totals calculated from the quarterly figures in CSO table VAC17.
| Year | Moved out of vacancy | Became vacant | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 31,463 | 33,642 | 2,179 more vacant |
| 2021 | 33,463 | 29,532 | 3,931 back in use |
| 2022 | 25,418 | 28,419 | 3,001 more vacant |
| 2023 | 32,996 | 28,793 | 4,203 back in use |
| 2024 | 29,268 | 27,163 | 2,105 back in use |
What Vacant Homes Are Like
Age is the common thread: 47% of the homes that became vacant in 2024 were built before 1970. Our period and older homes statistics page covers the older stock in detail.
Condition matters as much as count: in 2023, 21.2% of people in Ireland lived with damp, a leaking roof or rot, the fourth highest share in the EU, and 60.9% of rented homes inspected in 2024 failed the minimum standards (calculated). See our damp, mould and radon statistics for Ireland.
Where a vacant dwelling could be matched to a BER assessment (34% of them could), a third (33%) were rated F or G against 10% of all rated dwellings, and only 4% were rated A against 14% nationally, per the same CSO chapter. About 37% of matched vacant dwellings were detached houses. Beyond vacancy sits dereliction: GeoDirectory listed 19,137 derelict properties in June 2026, down 3.5% in a year, with Mayo holding 14.2% of the national total. An empty home is, in most cases, a renovation project waiting for a budget, which is what the grants below supply, and the derelict end of the spectrum carries its own higher grant tier precisely because the works run deeper.
Bringing Empty Homes Back: the Grant Engine
The Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant pays up to €50,000 towards refurbishing a qualifying property vacant for at least two years and built before 2008, rising to €70,000 where the property is derelict, per gov.ie. By July 2026 the scheme had 14,377 approved applications and had paid €348.6 million on 6,312 completed refurbishments, with €52.6 million paid in Quarter 2 2026 alone bringing 923 homes back into use, and 37 applications under the new Vacant Above the Shop Grant introduced in April, per the Department of Housing statement of 17 July 2026. The Department describes it as six previously vacant properties returning to use every working day. Donegal, the county with some of the highest vacancy rates, has been the scheme’s heaviest user: 1,638 applications, 1,233 approvals and €30.9 million paid on 542 properties.
Set against the flows above, the grant is material: the 923 grant funded completions in Quarter 2 2026 compare with roughly 7,300 homes leaving vacancy in a typical quarter on the CSO measure (calculated from the 2024 annual flow), so around one in eight returns now carries the grant.
Ageing in place is the other side of this coin: more than a quarter of people aged 65 and over live alone, rising to 44% of over-85s, and the State funds around 17,000 home adaptations a year. See our bathroom and accessibility renovation statistics for Ireland.
For a practical example of upgrading existing Dublin housing, our Clondalkin house renovation guide covers surveys, structural work, insulation and project sequencing.
The Age of the Stock Behind the Vacancy
The homes most likely to fall vacant are the oldest ones, and Ireland has plenty. Excluding not stated responses, 523,039 occupied homes (29.2%) were built before 1971 and 1,200,514 (66.9%) before 2001, rising to 72.5% in Dublin (all calculated from Census 2022 table FY033A). The same stock is under used even when occupied: 67% of the Irish population lives in an under-occupied home, the second highest share in the EU after Cyprus, and more than 655,000 occupied dwellings have exactly three bedrooms, per Eurostat and the Census Profile 2. Whether the answer is refurbishing an empty house or extending an occupied one, the work is renovation: the planning, cost and energy sides are covered in the other pages of this series.
Method and Sources
Every figure was taken from the named primary source on 16 September 2026: the CSO Frontier Series release Residential Vacancy Based on Metered Electricity Consumption 2024 (published 24 March 2026), its Further Detail chapter and table VAC17; CSO Census 2022 Profile 2 Housing in Ireland and table FY033A; the GeoDirectory Residential Buildings Report for Q2 2026 (22 July 2026); the Department of Housing Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant statement of 17 July 2026 and scheme page; CSO New Dwelling Completions Quarter 4 2025; and Eurostat Housing in Europe 2025. The CSO electricity measure is a Frontier Series output and the CSO notes it cannot be compared directly with other vacancy measures; this page presents the three measures separately for that reason. Figures marked calculated were derived by OS Holding from the cited sources (the census vacancy rate against total stock, the pre-2001 and pre-1971 shares excluding not stated, and the quarterly average of the 2024 vacancy outflow). The page will be refreshed when the CSO publishes its 2025 electricity based vacancy release (expected spring 2027), with each quarterly VPRG statistics release, and with each half yearly GeoDirectory report.
How OS Holding Helps
OS Holding refurbishes vacant and derelict houses across Dublin and the surrounding counties as part of its house renovation service, the kind of full rewire, replumb, insulate and refit project the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant funds, alongside extensions and insulation work. If you are pricing a vacant property project, request a quote or contact the team for a site survey. Journalists and researchers are welcome to quote any figure here with a link to the source and to this page.
