Dublin, October 1, 2025– KatRisk today reveals its latest analysis of Irish building stock and the risk of extreme coastal flooding — 4,774 new properties exposed, €4.5bn in potential claims.
This analysis by KatRisk provides an assessment of the growth in Ireland’s property base between August 2020 and August 2025. It is based on the latest and most comprehensive data to date and illustrates the share of those new properties exposed to extreme coastal flood events, as well as the estimated scale of potential claims in a worst-case scenario.
During this five-year timeframe, the total number of addresses in Ireland (as recorded by Eircode) has increased by 4.8% to 2,321,352. This represents a jump of 112,354 addresses – including both residential and commercial properties, as well as a mix of building types.
Overall, 4.5% of addresses in Ireland are currently at risk of flooding in an extreme coastal event, equating to 104,518. Of the 112,354 new addresses since 2020, some 4,774 (4.25%) are at risk of flooding in an extreme coastal event.
County Dublin is the most prevalent location of these newly constructed buildings which are in an at-risk zone – particularly the Dublin 1, 3 and 13 areas. Other areas where there is a high number of new addresses in at-risk zones include the Shannon Estuary covering Limerick and Shannon, and Louth – specifically Dundalk.
KatRisk also estimated the cost of potential insurance claims if every single at-risk address were flooded. This amounted to approximately €4.5 billion. Again, as some counties have more properties at risk than others, the cost would be greater in these areas.
For example, Dublin alone would contain a third of the potential claims in terms of volume, driven by the large number of properties along the coastline and the number of impacted commercial properties in the city centre, which entail higher claim amounts.
County Clare has about 10% of the total potential claim volume, driven by the number of low-lying properties along the Shannon estuary, which could see very high flood depths. Similarly, Limerick city is highly exposed. County Louth rounds out the top three counties by potential claim volume, driven by very high flood waters in an extreme event.
At the other end of the scale, despite having large numbers of properties close to the sea, Wexford and Wicklow are less exposed due to the model anticipating lower levels of water in these areas during an extreme coastal event.
Speaking about the analysis, Richard Garry, Director of Sales, KatRisk, said: “Coastal flooding is not just a theoretical climate risk for Ireland; it is a measurable and increasingly costly exposure. Rising sea levels, more frequent storm surges, and shifting weather patterns are converging to put both residential and commercial properties at risk – including new addresses.
Understanding how much of this new building stock is vulnerable, and what the potential financial implications could be, is vital for insurers, banks, policymakers and communities alike. Collectively, it is crucial that we manage risk and implement adaptation strategies to enable Ireland to withstand the next generation of coastal flood events. After all, the data – which is the most comprehensive to date and uses the latest location intelligence analytics technology – shows that climate risk is only moving in one direction.”
