Just 7,384 housing commencement notices were issued by builders in the first seven months of the year.
This is roughly a fifth of the 35,358 notices issued for the same period last year and less than half the number issued for the same period in 2023, pointing to a big slowdown in housing delivery.
The large number of housing starts last year reflected the temporary waiver of development levies paid by builders to local councils.
Based on the latest Department of Housing commencement data (residential construction starts), the Government is unlikely to reach its housing target of building 41,000 homes this year.
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The data shows that 1,059 notices for new homes were lodged in July.
On a rolling 12-month basis (August 2024 to July 2025), 40,124 commencement notices were received.
Of the 7,384 commencement notices received this year, 29 per cent (2,142) were in the four Dublin local authorities.
By local authority, the most commencement notices this year so far have been in Dublin city (1,459) followed by Cork county (628) and Limerick (461).
Housing starts surged to more than 60,000 last year, a level not seen since the Celtic Tiger era, as builders rushed to avail of development levy waivers.
A steep fall-off in housing starts this year combined with a slowdown in residential investment have, however, cast doubt over the Government’s pledge to build 300,000 new homes by 2030.
In a bid to entice more investment, the Government has overhauled the State’s system of rent pressure zones (RPZs) to allow landlords reset rents to market rates at the end of each six-year tenancy.
Nonetheless, construction consultants Mitchell McDermott believe the State’s housing output, based on all the macro indications, may not eclipse the 33,000 units achieved in 2023 for up to three years and that completions in 2025 could be as low as 32,000 units.
The Central Bank said in early July that it was “surprised” by the lack of progress and that it now estimates that only 32,500 units will be delivered in 2025. Some 30,330 homes were built in 2024.
However, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reported in late July that new homes built in the Republic increased 35 per cent on the year in the second quarter to 9,214, a surprise to industry observers. Apartment completions more than doubled year on year in the second quarter of 2025 to just over 3,000.
Davy analysts said at the time that the data supported their above-consensus outlook for residential property output of 37,500 this year.
The housing supply-demand mismatch is continuing to drive home prices higher. Irish residential property prices rose at an annual rate of 7.8 per cent in June, according to the latest CSO data.
