There’s 28 percent commercial/retail vacancy rate in Tipperary Town according to a new survey.
The study conducted by CTCHC land use survey says the town is out of step with normal commercial vacancy rate in Europe which is at 5%.
There are 73 empty commercial buildings within the town centre and 12 empty residential buildings with the town centre.
It found that Tipp Town’s commercial/retail vacancy rate is the highest in the CTCHC Programme, in comparison to Ballina’s 19% and Sligo’s 18.4% retail vacancy rate.
The founding co-ordinator of the CTCHC Programme says “the level of vacancy revealed in the town is completely unheard of in a European context.
Ali Harvey, says something must be done urgently to enable the reuse of these vacant buildings and sites.
Independent Councillor Annemarie Ryan says ‘Alarm bells in Ireland’s systems should go off at 11% but have failed to do so across many towns.
Tipperary Town is one of these towns in urgent need of targeted interventions that address systemic long term vacancy and dereliction within historic town centres’.
