Boost in housing completion rates in first quarter after delays to finish apartments last year

LAST UPDATE | 24 Apr

HOUSING COMPLETIONS EXPECTEDLY increased in the first quarter of this year but were largely driven by apartments finally being constructed following delays and snags in the last three months of 2024.

New figures, published by the Central Statistics Office this morning, show that housing completions increased by 2% last quarter after more than 1,700 apartments were built in the first three months of this year.

However, the 13.4% increase in apartment completions as of the end of last month – when compared to the first quarter of 2024 – was because there was a large number of unfinished apartments left behind in the final quarter of last year.

Delays to complete those new apartments led to government falling short of its desired housing target and completing less homes than 2023.

Despite this, Minister for Housing James Browne has welcomed today’s figures as good news, claiming that it will allow almost 6,000 families to avail of new homes. He said that he wants to scale up delivery as rapidly as possible.

The delays to complete apartments are evident in Dublin city, where 91.6% of finished homes in the first quarter of this year were flats. Nearly a third of all completions were in Dublin and more than a fifth were within commuter regions to the capital.

Most housing estate completions also took place within commuter regions of the capital, the Mid-East region which includes Louth, Meath, Wicklow and Kildare. 

While it was expected that apartment completions would increase this quarter, construction in every other category of housing is down when compared to the same period last year.

Just 3,020 new homes in housing estates, what the government calls ‘scheme homes’, were built in the first quarter of this year, down by 1.7% compared to the first three months of 2024.

The largest fall was seen in single home completions, with only 1,137 stand-alone dwellings being constructed fully so far this year, as of the end of last month. It represents a 3.4% decrease in the number of once-off home builds.

Government has frequently cited previous performances in completion reports in the later half of the year to claim that construction ramps up towards the end of the year. That was not the case at the end of last year after apartment builds fell, however.

Since, there has been significant doubt placed on the likelihood that government will reach its housing targets this year, after fewer homes were built in 2024 than in 2023.

That trend continued yesterday after it was revealed that government also missed its social housing target last year.

Ministers have previously expressed confidence over a record number of commencement orders were issued. The Journal FactCheck has highlighted that commencement orders do not necessarily reflect the number of sites where construction has physically begun. 

Browne said he will shortly be establishing a new team in his department to focus on ‘problem’ areas and identify solutions to implement in areas of the system that are lagging.

He added that he also intends to launch An Coimisiún Pleanála, the body which will replace the existing Bord Pleanálá, in the coming weeks. He said the new commission will change the organisational structure of the state’s planning inspectors.