Housing completions up 10.6% in first nine months of 2026

The number of new homes completed in Ireland is up 10.6 per cent so far this year, after an increase in the volume of apartment and housing scheme unit completions in the three months to the end of September.

New Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures reveal that 10,154 dwellings of all types were completed in the third quarter of the year, up 10.4 per cent compared to the same period in 2025.

This meant that a total of 26,833 units were completed in the first nine months of the year, up by 10.6 per cent from the January to September 2025 period.

Apartment completions rose 9.8 per cent year-on-year to 3,464, while housing scheme completions surged 13.65 per cent to 5,163.

More than half of all completions in the quarter were scheme dwellings, while 34 per cent were apartments and 15 per cent were single dwellings.

Apartment completions have increased since the Government unveiled policy measures last year, albeit at a more sluggish pace than expected.

They are also highly concentrated in Dublin, which accounted for 67 per cent of apartments completed in the third quarter. Almost 90 per cent of the units completed in Dublin in the quarter were apartments, according to the CSO data.

Last month, Dublin City Council assistant chief executive Mick Mulhern, who heads the local authority’s housing division, told an event that only half of apartment schemes granted permission in the city are proceeding to the development phase.

“In the city centre, 97 per cent of permitted schemes are apartments, and they’re hard to make work. Around 50 per cent of schemes aren’t starting,” Mulhern told the Beauchamps annual housing conference.

While housing output has increased this year, economists believe the number of completions will fall short of their previous estimates.

In its latest quarterly bulletin, the Central Bank of Ireland revised down its forecasts for new home completions for this year and next on the back of a slowdown in commencements.

It now expects completions to total 39,500, 41,000 and 45,000 for 2026, 2027 and 2028 respectively, down from 40,000, 42,000 and 46,000 previously.

“While there have been over 100,000 commencements since 2024, the timing around housing and apartment delivery suggests that without further improvements in commencements and building time, current projections may be difficult to meet,” it said.

Although the volume of housing permissions granted has increased so far this year, the Central Bank said in its bulletin that the link between permissions and completions in the State had “weakened over time”.

“A consistent share of planning approvals do not get built – of the housing units granted planning approval in each year from 2017 to 2020, around a quarter lapsed without construction commencing in the subsequent five years,” it said.