Housing commencement notices for last month 22.4% ahead of previous July

Local authorities reported over 500 more homes starting to be built in July of this year than the same month in 2022, new figures from the Department of Housing show.

In total local authorities received commencement notices for 2,985 new homes in July 2023, an increase of 22.4 per cent on the 2,438 new homes commenced in July 2022. The figure is also an increase on the 2,574 new homes commenced in June of this year.

A commencement notice is a notification to a building control authority that a person intends to carry out either works or a material change of use to which building regulations apply. They are generally seen as a useful measure of housing activity.

The Department of Housing says that 18,546 homes have been commenced in the first seven months of 2023, an increase of 11.8 per cent on the same period last year. Some 11,010 of these are in the greater Dublin area.

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Last month Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was the local authority that saw the largest number of new units, with 527 homes starting to be built. The lowest number came from Longford County Council, which saw the commencement of one home.

Cork County and City Councils combined saw 202 new residential units commenced in July, while the same figure for Galway City and County Councils was 92. The four Dublin local authorities had 1,187 new housing units commenced, while the greater Dublin area had 1,844, an increase from 1,187 in July of last year. The highest monthly figure recorded in the greater Dublin area this year was the 2,040 homes commenced in May.

Waterford City and County Council saw its figure for new homes commenced fall from 168 in June of this year to 13 last month. Wicklow County Council saw its figure increase from 27 new builds in June to 284 in July.

In 2022 29,957 new homes were commenced in the State throughout the year. In 2021 the Government estimated in its Housing For All plan that 33,000 new homes would be required each year up to 2030. With five months remaining in 2023, 14,454 homes will need to be built to reach that target.