300 new buildings in Wicklow in 2011
GEODIRECTORY FIGURES RELEASED
MORE THAN 300 new buildings were identified in Co Wicklow last year, according to figures released last week by Geodirectory.
This is 16 per cent fewer than 2010, when 357 new buildings were recorded in the county; however, the average national decrease is higher at 30 per cent.
The figures reveal that there are currently a total of 52,742 buildings in the county. Of the 2011 new-builds, 268 of those are residential and 30 are commercial, with three dual-purpose additions.
Geodirectory was jointly established by An Post and Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) to create and manage Ireland's only complete database of commercial and residential buildings. The figures were recorded by 5,600 An Post delivery staff working with OSI experts.
'While figures for the first six months of 2011 showed a return to growth in 11 counties, only five of these sustained this growth through to the end of the year. The overall national picture continues to show a year-on-year decline in building additions,' said Geodirectory general manager Dara Keogh. 'This downward trend follows a peak in 2007 when 96,000 buildings were added to the Geodirectory database. Since then, the number of additions to the database has continued to fall resulting in a drop of 87 per cent in new building additions over the last five years.'
Geodirectory will release figures for the first six months of 2012 in early July.
- MARY FOGARTY
