The number of additional units added to the social housing stock held by local authorities fell by 18 per cent last year, an independent assessment has found.
In a report published on Thursday, the National Oversight and Audit Commission also maintains that the current pace of retrofit activity suggests that Government targets to be achieved by 2030 are unlikely to be met.
The findings are set out in the latest local authority performance indicator report published by the commission.
The report for 2025 says housing remains a key area of concern.
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“Despite ongoing initiatives to increase supply, the number of housing units added to stock fell by 18.78 per cent compared with 2024, continuing a pattern of limited growth in annual output.”
The report notes that local authorities owned 158,772 social housing units at the end of 2025, an increase of 4,324 homes during the year
“Average reletting times remained above 32 weeks nationally in 2025, with considerable variation across local authorities. Monaghan recorded the shortest average reletting time at 11.61 weeks, followed by Laois (16.07 weeks) and Sligo (20.71 weeks), while at the other end of the scale were Kerry (66.12 weeks) and Limerick City and County (56.50 weeks).”
The commission’s report indicates that there has been an improvement in tackling social housing vacancy rates.
It says 3,866 social housing units were vacant at the end of 2025, a reduction from 4,251 in 2024.
“The overall vacancy rate for directly provided local authority housing stock stood at 2.44 per cent in 2025, the lowest point since 2015.”
“We continue to note with concern the progress under the Social Housing Energy Retrofit Programme. The National Climate Action Plan sets a target of retrofitting 36,500 local authority homes to a building energy rating (Ber) of B2 or equivalent by 2030.
“While the data indicates an increase in retrofit activity year on year, the rate of growth is not currently sufficient to achieve this target. As outlined in the 2024 report, continued acceleration in delivery will be required if national retrofit objectives are to be met within the remaining time frame.”
The commission’s paper also says there is also concern that the new “voids programme” announced in 2026, while accelerating the reletting of vacant social housing, will negatively affect the retrofit programme. Moreover, 2,671 local authority homes were retrofitted countrywide in 2025, an increase from 2,634 in 2024.
“Dublin city recorded the highest number of retrofits for the third consecutive year, with 327 homes upgraded, followed by Cork County (208) and Donegal (200). The lowest number of retrofitted houses was Mayo (11), Westmeath (14) and Leitrim (16).”
The report says financial governance and effective resource management remain critical to local authority performance and the financial indicators remain broadly positive.
“Commercial rates and home loan collection rates have improved significantly over the past decade, while rent collection performance has remained stable. However, considerable variations in collection performance between local authorities persist.
Waterford City and County (100 per cent), Fingal (99.7 per cent), Meath (98 per cent) and Monaghan (98 per cent) perform strongly in commercial rates collection. Authorities such as Sligo (78 per cent), Leitrim (81 per cent) and Donegal (81 per cent) continue to report rates collection levels below national averages.”
“The position regarding rent collection remains similar, with some authorities continuing to perform well, while others persistently experience lower levels of rent collection and have demonstrated little improvement over time.”
