Almost 43,000 new homes got planning permission in 2021

Planning permission was granted for nearly 43,000 new homes last year, the largest number in more than a decade, pointing to a significant pick-up in residential construction.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said planning permissions were granted for 42,991 homes in 2021, up from 42,371 in 2020.

Of this total, 26,272 were for apartments and 16,719 were for houses.

The number of houses granted planning permission fell annually for the third year in a row. In contrast, planning permissions for apartments were up 6.5 per cent on the previous year.

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Nearly 19,000 of these permissions were earmarked for Dublin, where foreign investors have flooded into the capital’s private rented sector (PRS) market to avail of comparatively strong returns.

Estate agent Sherry FitzGerald estimates that PRS investors have invested close to €7 billion in the Irish residential market since 2011, most since 2018, and most of it in Dublin.

One-off houses

The CSO’s figures show that of the 16,719 houses granted planning permission in 2021, 44.9 per cent were one-off houses while 55.1 per cent were multi-development houses.

The number of one-off houses granted planning permission rose by 41.7 per cent on an annual basis, while the number of multi-development houses granted approval declined by 25.7 per cent.

The CSO data shows the region with the highest number of apartment units granted planning permission was Dublin with 18,908, while the Border region (comprising Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo), with 109 apartment units, had the lowest.

The county with the most houses granted planning permission was Cork with 2,189, while Leitrim had the lowest with 74 houses.

Commenting on the data, Property Industry Ireland (PII) director David Duffy noted that if planning permissions for one-off housing were excluded, total planning permissions for 2021 fell by 4.3 per cent.

“One of the main solutions to the current housing crisis is the delivery of homes at scale,” he said.

Judicial review

However, he said the group “remain concerned that given the high level of judicial review, particularly of Strategic Housing Development (SHD) applications, commencement and completion of many of these units that have been granted planning permission is likely to be significantly delayed.”

Planning permissions offer an imperfect guide to future building activity as many permissions never translate into homes.

Some are sought just to add value to land or to alter existing provisions. Equally, many building projects fail for financial reasons before the building phase begins.

The CSO’s latest Residential Property Price Index suggested average house prices surged by 14.4 per cent across the State in 2021, the strongest level of growth in the market for nearly seven years.

The figures show the price of an average house in Dublin topped half a million euro last year, closing in on the Celtic Tiger high.