THERE WAS A 53.4% increase in new dwelling completions in the second quarter of the year, which is the most completions seen in any quarter since the series began in 2011, according to the Central Statistics Office.

There were 7,654 new dwellings recorded in the second quarter of 2022, which is up on the 4,990 new dwellings recorded last year and up 58.8% from Q2 of 2019, before the pandemic which resulted in the construction sector being restricted in its activity.

Figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that apartment completions rose 88.1% in the last year to 2,415, scheme dwellings rose 53.3% to 3,905, and single dwellings rose 15.1% to 1,334.

Just over half of all completions in Q2 2022 were scheme dwellings, 31.6% were apartments, while 17.4% were single dwellings.

Completions increased by more than 50% in Dublin, South-West, Mid-East, Mid-West, and the Midlands, the CSO said.

More than a third (34.3%) of scheme completions were in the Mid-East, in counties Louth, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow.

CSO statistician Justin Anderson said of the figures: “There has been an increase in all dwelling types this quarter when compared with the second quarter of 2021.

“Seven of the eight regions of Ireland saw an increase in completions from Q2 2021, with an 78.8% rise in Dublin and a more than 50% increase in the South-West, Mid-East, Mid-West, and the Midlands.

“There was a 9.6% drop in completions in the South-East. More than three-quarters of all apartment completions were in Dublin (76.3%) with apartments accounting for more than two-thirds of all new dwelling completions in Dublin (67.5%).

“The Mid-East region accounted for 34.3% of total scheme dwellings this quarter while the South-West region had the highest number of single dwelling completions, with 19.0% of all nationally.”

“At a Local Electoral Area (LEA) level, Ballyfermot-Drimnagh in Dublin had the most completions this quarter with 376. Nine of the 10 LEAs with the most completions were in Dublin, with the exception being Laytown-Bettystown in Meath.”

The new dwelling completions series by the CSO is based on the number of domestic dwellings connected by the ESB Network to the electricity supply.

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The CSO said it is accepted that the ESB domestic connections dataset is overestimating new dwellings, and the CSO has adjusted for this overcount by using additional information from the ESB and other data sources.

This was only possible where the connections dataset could be “confidently linked” to another dataset, it said, using unique identifiers or by address matching.

On student accommodation, the CSO said these buildings are generally connected to the ESB Network as commercial connections and so cannot be included in the ESB domestic connections dataset used for the new dwelling completions.

“The data available on this sector is on a ‘bed-space’ basis and it is not currently possible to report on it as dwellings, which are self-contained units of living accommodation,” it said.