The number of homes getting planning permission fell by more than 27 per cent in the last three months of 2011, new figures show.
In total, 2,133 houses and apartments got planning permission from October to December last year, which is a drop of 816 or 27.7 per cent compared with the same period in 2010.
The CSO figures show that 1,514 houses got planning permission compared to 2,159 in the same period in 2010. The number of apartments given planning permission fell by 171 to 619.
One-off houses accounted for 39.5 per cent of all new dwellings granted planning permission.
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The total number of new homes that got planning permission in 2011 was 4,755, a drop from the 2004 peak of 27,512.