The number of new homes built in the first quarter rose by almost a third and hit a 15-year high, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.
There were 7,856 new dwelling completions in January, February and March, which was a rise of 32.9 per cent on the same period last year.
The agency said it was the highest number of first-quarter completions since 2011.
There were 2,355 apartment completions, which was up 33.3 per cent on the same quarter in 2025. Scheme dwelling completions rose 34.5 per cent to stand at 4,082, while single dwellings increased by 27.8 per cent from 1,110 to 1,419.
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More than half of all completions were scheme dwellings. Thirty per cent were apartments and 18 per cent were single dwellings.
Davy chief economist Kevin Timoney described the growth in figures as “strong”, and said they came on the back of a pickup in momentum observed last year.
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However, they fell short of the group’s forecast.
“The result of 7,856 homes built between January and March represents annual growth of 33 per cent, albeit it fell short of our forecast of 9,660 completions,” Timoney said.
“We think adverse weather conditions, especially in February which saw an unusually high level of rainfall, explains the lower-than-expected figures, with one of the wettest Februarys on record.
“Helped by a weak first-quarter result last year, the level of apartments built increased 33 per cent to 2,355, while houses grew by a similarly strong rate to 5,501. We had forecast 6,700 houses and just under 3,000 apartment completions.
“However, we continue to see a strong pipeline of new housing delivery this year and next, still supported by a high level of commencements in 2024 and subsequent policy efforts to address infrastructure shortfalls along with bottlenecks in housing delivery, including those related to delivery costs.”
All regions of the State saw rises in completions. The largest was in the Border region of Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo, at 58 per cent. More than three in 10 were in Dublin, with 18.7 per cent in Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow.
More than seven in 10 apartment completions were in Dublin, at 1,831. In Dublin city, 95.3 per cent of completions in the quarter were apartments.
The CSO said the primary data source it used was ESB Networks’ new domestic connections data set, where the date that the connection is energised determines the date of completion.
