Statisticians defend official housing figures

State statisticians defended their calculation of the number of new homes built in the Republic last year following criticism that it overestimated actual supply.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) recently said that 29,851 homes were built in the Republic last year, basing its figure on the number of new dwellings connected to the electricity network. However, private firm Construction Information Services this week argued that the National Building Control Office’s certification system was a better guide and that this produced a 23,751 total.

The CSO dismissed this approach on Tuesday on the grounds that it was incomplete and inconsistent. In a statement the CSO said the certification system was “not only missing one-off single houses, of which there were more than 5,500 in 2022, it also lacked a consistent method of data collection” as individual architects or developers provided the information.

All buildings in the Republic must have an architect’s certificate of completion, which says they meet required standards, before they can be opened or occupied. Construction Information Services argues that this is the better guide to the number of new homes actually available.

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The CSO says its investigations determined that ESB Networks connection figures were the most suitable as a single organisation collects the information in a consistent format.