Home completions in Ireland are now takeing twice as long as they did a decade ago – four years instead of two – because of the State’s dysfunctional planning system.
That’s according to the Central Bank of Ireland in its latest quarterly bulletin issued last week, which saw them downgrade their estimated number of completions between now and 2028.
In the update the bank revised down its forecasts for new home completions for this year and next on the back of a slowdown in housing commencements.
It added that another factor driving the downward revision was slower delivery times.
“The homes that are built now take longer to arrive,” the bank said.
“For homes completed so far in 2026, the average duration from lodgment of planning application to completion was four years, twice as long as a decade ago.
“These increasing durations matter for the outlook of near-term housing completions. With such prolonged delivery times, homes completed over the next two to three years will come mainly from units already in the pipeline.”
In its report, the bank carried out a special analysis on housing delivery times.
It found that the median council decision time for non-appealed schemes and apartments rose by over a month to around four-and-a-half months between 2017 and this year. It noted that the share of decisions taking more than four months had risen from around one fifth to 56%.
While noting there has been a welcome rise in residential construction activity, with housing completions more than doubling between 2017 and last year, the Central Bank said it was revising down its forecasts for completions out to 2028.
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.
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