There was a surge in the number of apartments built or under construction in the Greater Dublin Area in the final quarter of last year, new figures show.
The housing supply monitor report for the fourth quarter of 2025 says work was completed or under way on sites with planning permission for 23,953 apartments – an increase of 13 per cent year on year.
However, the report shows planning permission for more than 40,000 apartments has not been “activated”, meaning construction has not yet begun.
Overall, 32,085 housing units – houses and apartments – with planning permission had been activated in the final quarter of last year. This represented an increase of 9.4 per cent year on year.
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The figures, to be published by the Department of Housing on Monday, are based on returns submitted by the four local authorities in the Dublin region.
The report sets out details of Dublin’s housing supply pipeline in a given quarter – number of permissions, how many are activated (started) and the number of homes built or being built.
Government sources said at the weekend the report would show there was “clear evidence” that a rise in commencement notices submitted in 2024 to avail of development waivers was now translating into on‑site construction.
“This uplift signals that permissions granted in recent years are increasingly moving into the build phase,” Government sources said.
The report says that in the final quarter last year there was planning permission for 77,909 residential units, with a further 15,322 proposed pending such approval.
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A total of 32,085 units – 41.2 per cent of permissions – had been activated, comprising 9,099 units built to date with 22,986 under construction on 205 active sites.
There were 45,824 units that had not commenced (58.8 per cent of permissions), of which 40,208 were apartments. A total of 38,391 of these were located on 278 inactive sites.
In the final quarter last year there were nine ongoing judicial reviews relating to 2,876 units – a reduction of 52.4 per cent year on year, according to the report.
“Of these, four large residential site developments and five strategic residential developments were subject to judicial review,” it states.
In the final quarter of last year, planning permission was in place in the Dublin City Council area for 27,224 new homes (26,751 or 98.3 per cent of which were apartments), with a further 3,949 proposed units pending decisions on planning applications, the report states. Of the 27,224 permitted units, 1,395 had been built and 11,668 were under construction on 67 active sites.
Planning permission was in place in Fingal County Council for 19,995 new homes (13,067 or 65.4 per cent of which were apartments), with a further 5,625 proposed units pending decisions on planning applications. A total of 3,765 units had been built to date, with 3,781 under construction on 58 active sites in the last quarter of 2025.
