New figures issued by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) indicate local authorities granted 16 per cent more planning permissions for apartments in the third quarter of 2007 than for the same period in 2006.
They approved planning permission for some 6,300 apartments in the third quarter of 2007, compared with 5,397 apartment units for the same period in 2006, according to the statistics.
This represents an increase of 16.7 per cent on 2006.
Overall on the housing market, there has been a slight increase in the number of planning permission granted for both houses and apartments for the third quarter of 2007, compared with the previous year.
Planning permissions were granted for some 22,138 houses and apartments in the third quarter of 2007, compared with just 20,883 units for the same period in 2006, an increase of 6 per cent.
This includes 15,838 planning permissions for houses in the third quarter of 2007, an increase of 2.3 per cent on the same period in 2006. One-off houses accounted for 22 per cent of all new dwelling units.
The total number of permissions granted for all commercial developments in 2007 was 17,338.
This compares with the 14,515 premises which were granted permission in the third quarter of 2006 and represents an increase of 19.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, planning permissions for new buildings for agriculture increased to 3,289 this quarter, compared with 1,453 permissions in the same quarter of 2006.
The total floor area planned was 6,638,000sq m in the third quarter of 2007.
This represents an increase of 24.4 per cent on the same period in 2006.