The number of new dwellings completed in the first quarter of 2023 was up 19.1% year-on-year, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The ‘New Dwelling Completions Q1 2023’ report shows that there were 6,716 new dwelling completions across January, February and March. This was up from 5,669 in the first quarter of last year and from 3,923 in Q1 2021.
The CSO data also shows housing completions over the past 12 months rising above 30,000 units for the first time since the 2000s.
For the first quarter since the series began in 2011, more than a third of completions (36.1%) were apartments. In total 2,427 apartments were completed in Q1, up 41% from the same period of last year.
Apartment completions in Q1 2023 were more than double what they were three years ago (1,003 in Q1 2020) and over five times higher than five years ago (475 in Q1 2018) when 13.8% of completions were apartments.
A further 46.1% were scheme dwellings while 17.8% were single dwellings.
There were 3,092 scheme dwelling completions in Q1 2023, up 10.1% from Q1 2022, with 1,197 single dwellings completed, up 7.7% from Q1 2022.
More than a third (37.6%) of completions in Q1 2023 were in Dublin, with close to a fifth (19.9%) in the Mid-East (Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow). Six of the eight regions of Ireland saw an increase in completions from Q1 2022 to Q1 2023, with small drops just in the Midlands (Laois, Longford, Offaly, and Westmeath) and South-East (Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Wexford) regions.
The relative increase was greatest in the South-West (Cork City and County, and Kerry) at 37.3% and the West (Galway City and County, Mayo, and Roscommon) at 30.7%. More than three-quarters (75.4%) of apartment completions this quarter were in Dublin (1,830). The most scheme completions were in the Mid-East (926) with the most single completions in the West (210).
By Local Electoral Area (LEA), the most completions in Q1 2023 were 332 in Rathfarnham-Templeogue, with the top 10 LEAs all being in or close to Dublin.
There has also been a rise of 4.9% in seasonally adjusted new dwelling completions from Q4 2022 to Q1 2023.
