Big increase in number of apartments approved

Planning permission is being granted for increasing numbers of apartments, but one-off houses still accounted for 34.3 per cent of all planning permissions in the first quarter of 2004.

That is according to the quarterly bulletin from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released yesterday. The bulletin also found planning permissions for new homes in the first quarter of this year were running at almost twice the rate of the same period in 2003, reflecting a continuing increase in activity in the construction industry.

Permission was granted for 25,401 new dwellings, which the CSO defines as houses, one-off houses and apartments, in the first quarter of 2004, compared to 13,541 new dwellings for the same period in 2003.

But the greatest percentage rise was in the number of apartments approved by the planners: more than 107 per cent up on 2003 levels. Planning permission was granted for 8,347 apartments in the first quarter of 2004 compared to 4,030 in the first quarter of 2003.

At 17,054 the number of planning permissions granted for new houses still far exceeded the 9,511 for 2003, but the increase of almost 80 per cent is less than the comparative rate of increase in apartment building. The figures also show one-off houses accounted for 34.3 per cent of all new houses granted planning permission during the period.

Regionally the Border, Midlands and Western Region approved 2,949 one-off houses in the first quarter, slightly higher than the 2,892 approved in the Southern and Eastern Region.

On a more local level, the Dublin Region had the lowest number of one-off houses at 250; while the Border Region which includes the Border counties and Sligo had the highest at 1,287. There were just 1,511 planning applications for all types of dwellings granted in the Border Region in the period.

In terms of houses, not including one-off houses, there were 281 permissions in the BMW region which accounted for 4,511 houses while in the Southern and Eastern Region 304 permissions accounted for 6,702 new houses. There were just 42 permissions in the Dublin region which accounted for 1,109 houses. In the Midlands 41 permissions amounted to 925 houses.

In terms of apartments there were 148 permissions in the BMW region which accounted for 1,817 apartments. In the Southern and Eastern Region there were 309 permissions accounting for 6,530 apartments. Not surprisingly Dublin had the most apartments at 4,295 representing 112 permissions but the Midlands scored high with permission for 443 apartments in 22 applications.

During the first quarter of this year the number of planning permissions granted for new dwellings - some of them representing applications for multiple dwellings - by Waterford City Council was 13; Cork City Council 27; Limerick City Council 10 and Galway City Council 29. In Dublin City Council it was 164. By county council, the highest number of permissions for dwellings gran- ted was 700 in Co Donegal while the lowest was 83 in Co Carlow.