There was a 10.4% increase in the number of new homes built in the third quarter of this year, from July to September, as 10,154 dwellings were finished.
New figures from the Central Statistics Office show there was a 13.5% rise in homes in housing estates, a 9.8% rise in apartment building and a 2.1% increase in one-off houses.
It means that over the past 12 months there have been 38,589 homes built in Ireland.
So far this year 26,833 homes have been finished compared to 24,256 in the same period last year.
House completions traditionally are strongest in the last months of the year.
While today’s figures are encouraging, experts caution Ireland still has a significant pent-up demand for homes which has been estimated at between 250,000 to 300,000.
Many analysts believe housebuilding needs to increase above well above 50,000 homes to have an impact on the pent-up demand.
“I am taking nothing for granted, but as a key indicator of where we are at, it demonstrates that our policies are translating into real progress on the ground, delivering more homes and putting keys in people’s hands,” Minister for Housing James Browne said.
Economists have forecast between 39,000 and 40,000 homes will be built in 2026.
Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin said today that the Government is on course to miss both its 2026 and 2030 housing targets.
“The most optimistic projections for new home completions for this year estimate that around 40,000 new homes will be built,” Mr Ó Broin said.
“This is significantly off the annual average of 50,000 required to meet the overall target out to 2030. More importantly for every year that average is missed, the average for the remaining years increases further,” he added.
Commenting on today’s figures, Kate English, Chief Economist at Deloitte Ireland, said that Ireland is on track to see the highest number of completions in 2026 since 2008.
“Almost one year from the Housing Plan launch, the challenge now is turning this progress into a sustained increase in supply,” she said.
But she added that a lot has also changed since that plan was published – interest rates are under scrutiny yet again as growing energy prices drive higher inflation, which will impact the construction sector.
“With that in mind, the attempt to row back on Approved Housing Body delivery is premature and risks diminishing housing delivery overall. It is important we see continued efforts to deliver homes across all tenure types using all delivery channels,” she added.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
