Number of apartments built fell by 2 per cent from second quarter of last year to April-June of this year
One-off houses accounted for 25 per cent of planning permissions granted for new homes throughout the State in the second quarter of this year, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Meanwhile, the number of apartments built fell by just over 2 per cent from 7,484 in the second quarter of last year to 7,313 in April-June this year - reflecting a slackening of the effort to boost residential densities.
As a proportion of the total number of new homes approved, the fall-off in apartment construction is even more marked - down from 36 per cent in the second quarter of 2003 to 28 per cent in the same period of this year.
Altogether, planning permissions were granted for 25,966 new homes in the second quarter of 2004, an increase of 26 per cent on the 20,602 recorded in the same period last year. This suggests 2004 will be another record year.
In 2003, for the ninth year in a row, a record number of new homes were built - amounting to 68,819 units. However, official figures showed that one-off houses in rural areas accounted for 43 per cent of total output.
Co Donegal led the field for one-offs in the second quarter of this year, with permissions granted for 832 houses. It was followed by Co Galway (665), Co Cork (584), Co Kerry (457), Co Cavan (326) and Co Mayo (325).
By contrast, planning permissions were approved for just 11 one-off houses in Cork City, nine in Galway City, seven in Waterford City and two in Limerick City. Even in rural Fingal, only 68 one-offs were approved.
Apartments accounted for the bulk of new housing approved during the second quarter in the Dublin area, with figures of 1,488 for Dublin City, 1,221 for Fingal, 781 for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and 137 for South Dublin.
A surprisingly high number of apartments (724) were approved for Meath, but there were also schemes sanctioned for 584 in Cork City, 112 in Sligo Town, 72 in Galway City, 70 in Limerick City and 61 in Waterford City.
At the other end of the scale, Co Longford recorded only a single apartment approved for construction between April and June 2004. Other low figures included seven in Co Offaly, nine in South Tipperary and 18 in Co Cavan.
The average floor area per apartment increased year by year, from 69.5 sq metres (748 sq ft) in 1998 to 79.3 sq metres (854 sq ft). But the 2004 second quarter figures shows this has slipped back to 74.2 sq metres (799 sq ft).
The floor area of one-off houses varied from 147.2 sq metres (1,584 sq ft) in the Dublin area to 196.7 sq m (2,117 sq ft) in the south-west, 201.8 (2,172 sq ft) in the west and 210.3 sq m (2,264 sq ft) in the south-east.
The trend in favour of one-off housing is likely to be intensified by the new Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines, which are intended to introduce a more liberal planning regime.
However, under the Government's Residential Density Guidelines, adopted in 1999, local authorities are meant to facilitate schemes delivering higher densities than the standard suburban norms of former years. With one-offs now accounting for at least 25 per cent of the record output of housing, it is clear that the 1999 policy is not being realised.