CLOSE TO four in 10 homes completed in the third quarter of this year were apartments, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows. 

There were 8,452 new dwelling completions in quarter three (Q3) of this year, an increase of 14.4% on the same three months of 2022.

Apartment completions rose 47.3% in the 12 months to Q3 to 3,373.

There were 3,627 scheme dwelling completions in Q3, up 1.5% from Q3 2022, while single dwellings were down 4.7% to 1,452 in Q3 2023.

Over four in 10 (42.9%) completions in the third quarter of this year were scheme dwellings, with 39.9% apartments and 17.2% single dwellings.

There was an increase in completions from the third quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of this year for six of the eight regions of Ireland. This included a 36.7% rise in Dublin, but falls occured in the South-West and South-East.

By Local Electoral Area (LEA), the most completions in Q3 were in Tallaght South with 604, almost double that of the second highest LEA (329 in Lucan).

Single dwellings are defined by the CSO as once-off dwellings connected to the ESB network. Scheme dwellings are houses that form part of a multi-unit development of two or more houses connected to the ESB network. Apartment dwellings are within a multi-unit development and are specifically identified by the ESB as apartments. 

Commenting on the new data, Association of Irish Mortgage Advisors chairperson Trevor Grant said that “while the increase in housing completions is encouraging, it is not enough”.

“There is still huge demand for housing and not enough homes are being built to meet that demand. This is a shame because it is coming at a time when so much has been done, through the likes of the Help-to-Buy and First Home schemes, to bridge the affordability gap for first-time buyers and when mortgage approvals for first-time buyers are hitting record highs,” Grant said. 

“Supply seems to be the sticky point of the Irish housing market which just won’t go away.”