New home completions rose marginally in the first quarter of 2025 despite concerns the Government will miss its housing targets again this year.
There were 5,938 new dwelling completions in January, February, and March, a rise of 2 per cent on the same period last year, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
New home completions fell by almost 7 per cent to just over 30,000 last year despite assertions by Government Ministers that output was on an upward trajectory. Department of Housing figures released this week show the State also missed its target for delivery of social homes last year by almost 20 per cent.
The Housing for All target for 2025 is 41,000 homes but most industry commentators believe the final tally will be some way short of this.
One of the key trends impacting supply is the fall-off in apartment building in Dublin and other urban centres, a trend that has been linked to higher interest rates.
The latest figures show the number of apartments completed in the first quarter stood at 1,781, up 13.4 per cent on the same period last year.
More than half of completions (50.9 per cent) were scheme dwellings, 30 per cent were apartments, and 19.1 per cent were single dwellings.
Nearly a third (32 per cent) of completions were in Dublin, with more than a fifth (20.8 per cent) in the mid-east region which includes counties Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow.
Six of the eight regions in the State saw a rise in completions. The region with the largest relative increase in completions was the West - Galway City and counties Mayo, and Roscommon- at 5.8 per cent, while the Border region, comprising counties Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo, saw the second largest relative growth at 5 per cent.
The CSO said there was an increase in completions annually in the first quarter in six of the eight regions of the Republic, including a 5.8 per cent rise in the West. The local electoral area with the most completions in the first quarter was Howth-Malahide at 386.
The Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers said the 2 per cent rise on the same period in 2024 comes on “what was already a wholly inadequate level of home building”.
“If those figures were to be repeated for the remainder of the year it would give 24,000 for the full year,” chief executive Pat Davitt said.
“That said, it’s good to see homes being built in the west and south west. This points to the fact that price increases in the regions are making it more viable for builders to build,” he said. “It’s still not enough throughout the regions of smaller towns.
“This will only happen when more small builders get back into building and this will only happen when they can borrow money and are facilitated with emergency legislation giving small sties the planning required in a short time frame.”
