A total of 22,443 new homes were built in the Republic in the first three quarters of 2023, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), a year-on-year increase of 9 per cent. The data suggest the supply of new homes is continuing to increase and that the sector is likely exceed last year’s total of just under 30,000.
The CSO’s “new dwellings completion” series provides the most accurate picture of residential construction rates in the State.
The latest figures indicate there were 8,452 new dwelling completions in the third of 2023, an increase of 14.4 per cent on the same three months of 2022. This comes on the back of 7,339 completions in the second quarter and 6,652 completions in the first quarter.
Apartment completions rose by 47 per cent to stand at 3,373 in the third quarter and accounted for just under four in ten (39.9 per cent) of all completions, the CSO said.
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More than four-fifths (80.8 per cent) of apartment completions were in Dublin while almost all (97.5 per cent) completions in Dublin City in the third quarter were apartments. Apartments also accounted for more than three-quarters (76.4 per cent) of all completions across the county.
There has been an influx of foreign investment into the State’s real estate sector. Most of it has financed or is invested in the building of apartments in urban areas, where high rents generate strong returns for investors.
The CSO figures show scheme dwellings rose by 1.5 per cent to 3,627, while single dwellings fell 4.7 per cent to 1,439.
By local electoral area, the highest number of completions in the quarter was in Tallaght South with 604, almost double that of the second highest area (329 in Lucan).
The region with the biggest relative increase in the 12 months to the third quarter was Dublin (36.7 per cent) with rises also in the midlands (25.9 per cent), border (14.9 per cent), mid-west (13.8 per cent), west (3.1 per cent), and mid-east (0.3 per cent) regions. There was a decrease in completions in the south-west (-11.8 per cent) and south-east (-0.6 per cent) over the same period.
“New housing supply is holding up better than expected, helped by robust private demand, government incentives and a step up in government funding for public housing,” Goodbody chief economist Dermot O’Leary said.
He said the annual growth in completions was almost entirely due to growth in apartment output in Dublin.
“Policy now actively encourages a higher share of brown-field development, reflecting a desire to avoid past mistakes of urban sprawl, but also the need for smaller accommodation types as the household size falls,” he said.
Based on Goodbody’s own completions data, he said the firm expected approximately 31,000 new homes to be completed this year, up from just under 30,000 last year.
“Given the rising interest rate environment, this is surprising but welcome in the context of the chronic undersupply of homes that currently exists,” he said.
