THE NUMBER OF new homes completed over the second quarter of this year fell by over 5% from the same time last year, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.

There were 6,884 new dwelling completions in quarter two (Q2) of this year, falling 5.4% compared to the same three-month period last year.

Apartment completions fell by 15.1%, with 1,566 units completed during Q2 of this year. Almost seven in 10 apartments were also completed in Dublin.

More than half of all completions were scheme dwellings, with 3,949 this quarter, but the figure is also down on the previous year by 1.8%.

The number of single dwellings also fell during Q2 of this year, with 1,369 completions representing a drop of 3%.

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.

Four of the eight regions in Ireland also saw a fall in completions, with the second largest relative decrease happening in Dublin (down 10.6%). The Mid-East also saw a significant drop-off, with 19.4% fewer completions in Q2 this year.

There were, however, increases in completions across the South-East (18.2%) and the Midlands (3.2%), while the largest jump came in Clare, Limerick and Tipperary which saw a 46.2% rise compared to the same quarter last year.

Reacting to the release of the data, Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin said that “the Government’s housing plan is not working” and called the drop in completions “deeply worrying”.

“This is the second quarter in a row that has shown a decline in new home completions”, he continued, suggesting that “it is increasingly likely that this years final output will be the same as, if not lower, than last years”.

Ó Broin also attacked the Government’s record on social and affordable home delivery, saying they had failed to “deliver a sufficient supply” of social and affordable homes, adding the consequence of which is “rising rents and house prices, missed targets and rising homelessness”.

The Social Democrats’ housing spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan said that the actual number of homes being built was falling when Ireland needed it to be rising.

“This Government has made it clear that they are incapable of tackling the housing crisis,” he said.

“Rents, house prices, and the number of people in homeless accommodation have all reached previously unimaginable heights.”

Last week it was revealed that just 158 new social housing units were built in the first three months of this year, though a further 562 units were delivered through acquisitions and leasing programmes.

These figures are slightly different from today’s CSO release as they only include local authority and Approved Housing Body social housing build activity.

It was also revealed in March that the Government had missed last year’s social and affordable housing targets by over 2,600 homes.

The Government has a target of building 9,300 new social housing units by the end of the year.