In 2024, 3% of the homes in the State were vacant, according to a new housing commentary from the Central Statistics Office.
That amounts to 70,000 houses in total.
The CSO classifies homes as vacant based on very little or no long-term electricity usage.
Vacancy rates were as low as 1% in urban areas and as high as 10% in some rural areas.
The CSO commentary also noted a significant moved away from one-off housing to residential and apartment developments.
In 2015, nearly half of all new homes were one-off houses and just 9% were apartments.
A decade later in 2025, half of new homes were in residential developments and a further third were apartments.
The statistics body also carried out an analysis of who is buying new homes.
Full year statistics for 2024 showed 60% of homes were bought by couples, while most of the rest were split evenly between single male and female buyers.
The average age of people who bought homes in 2024 was 40.
While concerns are now growing about the inflationary impacts of the war in the Middle East, the commentary shows steep inflation in building costs even before war related factors are considered.
The CSO said the cost of construction material for new homes has risen steadily over the last five years and is now 37% higher than February 2021.
House prices have been rising strongly too, the average cost of a home in Dublin is now 38% higher than it was four years ago.
Nationally in 2025, house prices rose 7%.
The highest average price in December 2025 was in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown in Dublin at €680,000, while the lowest average prices were in Co Donegal at €195,000.
