Wexfordhousingstockupby just0.09percentinfiveyears

ESTHER HAYDEN CRUNCHES THE NUMBERS FROM THE LATEST RELEASE OF CENSUS FIGURES

OVER the past five years Wexford’s housing stock grew by just 63 houses.

That’s according to the publication by the Central Statistics Office of the first thematic report from Census 2016 focusing on Housing in Ireland.

The results show that a total of 2,003,645 houses and apartments in the State were enumerated in the 2016 Census.

Of these, 1,697,665 were occupied by persons usually resident in the State. There were 183,312 vacant houses and apartments, while the census also counted 62,148 vacant holiday homes.

Wexford’s housing stock grew to 68,206 from 68,143, an increase of 0.09 per cent from April 2011.

Wexford had 54,006 permanent occupied dwellings in April 2016, compared with 52,345 in April 2011. The rate of increase was 3.2 per cent, considerably slower than the 2006-2011 rate of 16.1 per cent. At a State level, there were 1,697,665 permanent housing units occupied at the time of the census, an increase of 2.9 per cent (48,257) since April 2011.

The number of vacant dwellings in Wexford has fallen to 12,547 - down from 14,329 in 2011. Of this, the number of holiday homes counted was 6,629. The vacancy rate has dropped from 21 per cent to 18.4 per cent. Nationally, there was a 15 per cent drop in the number of all vacant dwellings including holiday homes from 289,451 in 2011 to 245,460 in April 2016.

In Wexford, 14,308 households were in rental accommodation in 2016, compared with 13,257 in 2011. The average rent paid to private landlords was €129.99, a slight decline on the 2011 figure which was €130.33. For the country overall, 22,323 more households were renting their accommodation compared to 2011, bringing the total renting to 497,111. Since 2011 the national average weekly rent paid to private landlords grew to €199.92.

Home ownership overtakes renting in Wexford at the age of 34. Nationally, by the age of 35, more people own their own home than rent, compared with age 32 in 2011. Given that this age was 26 in 1991, this shows a clear long term trend. The home ownership rate for Wexford was 71.5 per cent, compared with 73.6 per cent in 2011.

The latest results show that the number of permanent households in Wexford in 2016 stands at 54,006. This compares to 922,908 in Leinster and a total of 1,697,665 nationally. In 2011, there were 52,345 permanent households in Wexford compared to 895,149 in Leinster and 1,649,408 nationally.

Wexford has an above average rate of home ownership according to the CSO figures with the county having a rate of 71.5 per cent. This compares favourably to Leinster (65.6 percent) and nationally (67.6 per cent).

There are a total of 14,038 households in rented accommodation in Wexford while in Leinster there are 285,423 households renting and nationally there are 497,111 households. The percentage of households living in rented accommodation in Wexford is 26.5 per cent which again compares favourably with the national average of 29.3 per cent.

Fewer people in Wexford have a mortgage or loan in 2016 compared to 2011 according to the figures. This is in keeping with the national trend.

In 2016, 16,562 households in Wexford hold a mortgage or loan compared to 18,103 in 2011. Nationally 535,675 households had a mortgage or loan in 2016 compared to 583,148 in 2011.

The figures show that there were 2,319 apartments in Wexford in 2016 which represents 4.3 per cent of occupied households within the county. This is significantly lower than the national average which is an apartment occupancy rate of 11.8 per cent while the Leinster average stands 7.3 per cent.

There was an increase in rents for local authority homes in Wexford in 2016 with the average local authority rent standing at €68.59, an increase of €4.95 on the 2011 figures. The average national local authority rent was €68.50 in 2016.

Private rents dropped slightly, decreasing from €130.33 in 2011 to €129.99 in 2016. The average national private rent was €199.92 in 2016.

The figures show that there were a total of 12,547 vacant dwellings in the county in 2016. Of these 4,744 were homes, 1,174 were apartments while the remaining 6,629 were holiday homes. The county has a high vacancy rate of 18.4 per cent which is significantly higher than the Leinster rate of 8 per cent while the national rate is 12.3 per cent.

For the purpose of Census 2016 the housing stock is defined as the total number of permanent residential dwellings that were available for occupancy at the time of census enumeration. In this report, the housing stock consists of permanent private households (inhabited by both usual residents and visitors), holiday homes, vacant houses or apartments, along with dwellings where all the occupants were temporarily absent on Census night. However, communal establishments, temporary private households (e.g. caravans and mobile homes), along with dwellings categorised by the enumerators as being derelict or under construction are excluded from this definition.

In identifying vacant dwellings, enumerators were instructed to look for signs that the dwelling was not occupied and to find out from neighbours whether it was vacant or not. Similar precautions were also taken before classifying holiday homes.

Dwellings under construction and derelict properties were not included in the count of vacant dwellings.

Deirdre Cullen, Senior Statistician, said: ‘In recognition of the demand from users, and society in general, for a better understanding of housing in Ireland, the Central Statistics Office has prioritised the housing release as its first thematic report from Census 2016.

‘We believe this report provides a clear picture of some of the main developments in the Irish housing landscape over the past five years, including new analysis of vacant properties, such as type of dwelling and distance to the nearest town.’

Profile 1 Housing in Ireland is the first of eleven profile reports that will be produced from Census 2016.