Housing activity ramps up as commencement notices increase by 11.4%

Commencement notices for 3,059 new homes were issued by builders in May. The figure represents an increase of 11.4 per cent on the number of new homes commenced in May last year.

A commencement notice is required by the State’s planning authorities and is seen as a useful measure of housing activity.

The figures show 12,987 new homes commenced in the first five months of this year, a 7.4 per cent increase on the similar period last year. The Department of Housing said the figures represent a record high since data were first compiled by the department in 2015.

The figures build on strong increases in commencements in the last quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023 which continued into quarter three of 2023.

Student accommodation: A market plagued by bed shortages, rising rents and 51-week leases

---

An attempt to buy the next election with a giveaway budget would be a gross miscalculation

---

The outlook for interest rate cuts is changing - so should Irish borrowers be worried?

---

IDA gives Intel €30m in aid package

---

The number of commencement notices served have risen steadily in recent years. In 2015 there were 2,949 new schemes, including one-off homes, begun. By 2019 this had risen to 10,385 new schemes before falling during the first year of Covid to 8,765 in 2020.

In 2022 Dublin local authorities were served with 419 commencement orders but the highest number of commencement orders was in Cork city and county with 731. Galway city and county was next with 472. Galway city was the lowest at just 33 commencement orders followed by Leitrim (35) and Longford (46).

[ The housing crisis has many causes but nimbyism is not one of them ]

In the first five months of this year the highest number of commencement notices were in Dublin city and county at 199. Co Galway was next at 174, followed by Mayo at 139.

HomeBond, the home builders’ guarantee scheme, has stopped sharing data with the Department of Housing as of July 2022.

HomeBond provides warranties on new homes that typically cover any big structural defects over a 10-year period. Registrations are normally issued one month before work commences on the site.

The full commencement data set can be accessed here.