There were 5,938 new dwelling completions in January, February, and March (Q1) 2025, a rise of 2.0% on the same three months of 2024.
Apartment completions in Q1 2025 stood at 1,781, up 13.4% from Q1 2024.
There were 3,020 scheme dwelling completions in Q1 2025, down 1.7% from Q1 2024.
The number of single dwellings completed in Q1 2025 was 1,137, down 3.5% from Q1 2024.
More than half of completions (50.9%) were scheme dwellings, 30.0% were apartments, and 19.1% were single dwellings.
There was an increase in completions from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025 in six of the eight regions of Ireland, including a 5.8% rise in the West.
The Local Electoral Area (LEA) with the most completions in Q1 2025 was Howth-Malahide at 386.
There was a rise of 2.3% in seasonally adjusted new dwelling completions from Q4 2024 to Q1 2025.
Single dwellings are one-off dwellings connected to the ESB network.
Scheme dwellings are houses that form part of a multi-unit development of two or more houses connected to the ESB network.
Apartment dwellings are within a multi-unit development and are specifically identified by the ESB as apartments.
| New Dwelling Completions | ||||
| Single | Scheme | Apartment | Totals | |
| Quarter 1 2024 | 1,178 | 3,071 | 1,570 | 5,819 |
| Quarter 1 2025 | 1,137 | 3,020 | 1,781 | 5,938 |
| % change | -3.5% | -1.7% | 13.4% | 2.0% |
There were 5,938 new dwelling completions in the first quarter of 2025, a rise of 2.0% from the same quarter in 2024. Completions increased by 13.4% for apartments from 1,570 in Q1 2024 to 1,781 in Q1 2025.
The Q1 data for 2025 also shows that:
The primary data source used for the New Dwellings Completions series is the ESB Networks new domestic connections dataset, where the date that the connection is energised determines the date of completion. It is accepted that the ESB domestic connections dataset is overestimating new dwellings and the CSO has adjusted for this overcount by using additional information from the ESB and other data sources.
ESB connections are classified into four categories: new dwelling completions, UFHDs (previously finished houses in Unfinished Housing Developments), reconnections and non-dwellings. The dwelling type (single, scheme, apartment) and urban-rural divide are defined by the ESB Network. See Background Notes for a more detailed discussion of the classification.
The New Dwelling Completions series is based on the number of domestic dwellings connected by the ESB Network to the electricity supply and may not accord precisely with geographical boundaries.
The CSO has utilised other available data sources to validate and enhance the ESB connections dataset. However, this was only possible where the connections dataset could be confidently linked to another dataset using unique identifiers or by address matching. As the level of Eircode collection, coverage and storage increases across data sources in the housing sector, it is expected that the precision of estimates on new dwelling completions can be further enhanced.
The ESB connections data - with adjustments as detailed above - is the most consistent manner of measuring housing completions with connections made in the same way by one organisation, ESB Networks, across the country. No other currently available sources have this same level of consistency nor accuracy in identifying numbers of individual units.
There has been a significant level of construction output in the student accommodation sector. These are generally connected to the ESB Network as commercial connections and are therefore not included in the ESB domestic connections dataset used for the new dwelling completions. Further to this the data available on this sector is on a “bed space” basis and it is not currently possible to report on it as dwellings, which are self-contained units of living accommodation. Based on consultation with stakeholders in this sector, student accommodation may be included in future New Dwelling Completions reports as a separate category. Information on completed student bed spaces is provided by the Higher Education Authority (HEA). They have detailed to the CSO that there was no new bed spaces completed in Q1 2025.
In Q1 2025 the number of completions in urban areas was 5,019, increasing 3.2% from 4,864 in Q1 2024. In rural areas, the number of completions fell, with 919 in Q1 2025, down from 955 in Q1 2024. Of all completions in the quarter, 84.5% were in urban areas (See Table 2).
Six of the eight regions of Ireland saw rises in completions from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025, with a fall in the other two regions. The largest relative increase was in the West (Galway City and County, Mayo, Roscommon) at 5.8%, with increases also in the Border (+5.0%), South-West (+4.8%), Mid-East (+3.9%), Dublin (+2.0%), and Mid-West (+0.7%) regions. The decreases were in the Midlands (Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath) (-7.4%) and the South-East (Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Wexford) (-3.6%) regions.
More than three in ten (32.0%) completions in Q1 2025 were in Dublin, with just over a fifth (20.8%) in the Mid-East region (Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow) (See Figure 2).
More than seven in ten (73.0%) apartment completions in Q1 2025 were in Dublin (1,301). In Dublin City, 91.6% of completions in the quarter were apartments. The most scheme dwelling completions were in the Mid-East region (907), while Kildare was the local authority with the most scheme completions (321). The South-West region (Cork City and County, and Kerry) had the most single completions in Q1 2025 (192), with Cork County (123) the local authority with the most one-off dwelling completions (See Table 3).
Classification into local authorities has taken into account boundary changes between Cork City and Cork County which came into effect in May 2019. All historical data within the tables below and the PxStat interactive tables have been revised to now be based on the new boundaries. However, data within archived releases remain unchanged.
The most completions by Local Electoral Area (LEA) in Q1 2025 was in Howth-Malahide (386). South-East Inner-City Dublin (202) was the LEA with the second highest number of completions. Outside of Dublin, Wicklow, Cork City North-East, Tramore-Waterford City, and Newbridge were the other LEAs in the top ten with the most completions this quarter (See Map 1).
New dwelling completions by LEA going back to 2012 by year and quarter can be viewed in the PxStat tables NDA05 and NDQ09. There is also data available by Eircode Routing Key by year and quarter in PxStat tables NDA01 and NDQ07.
There was a total of 6,325 new domestic ESB connections in Q1 2025, an increase of 1.4% from 6,240 in Q1 2024. The ESB domestic connections series continues to show a comparable trend to the New Dwelling Completion (NDC) series compiled by the CSO as shown in Figure 3. The number of new dwelling completions as a percentage of total ESB domestic connections was 93.8% in Q1 2025.
There are still some small differences in volume between the two series. The starting point for the NDC series is the ESB domestic connections dataset, with adjustments made to account for previously finished houses in unfinished housing developments (UFHDs), reconnections and non-dwellings as shown in Figure 4 and Table 4.
A property that is reconnected to the ESB Network after having been disconnected for more than two years is assigned a new Meter Point Reference Number (MPRN) and is therefore included in the ESB new connections datasets and is here considered to be a reconnection. There were 250 reconnections in Q1 2025, a decrease of 6.4% from 267 in Q1 2024. This fall in reconnections after two years reflects the decline in Non-Payment of Account Disconnections since 2019 reported by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities.
The number of previously finished dwellings in unfinished housing developments (UFHDs) was still low with 30 in Q1 2025. The number of non-dwellings, mostly farm buildings, fell 21.9% from 137 in Q1 2024 to 107 in Q1 2025. UFHDs accounted for just 0.5% of all connections this quarter (See Figure 4 and Table 4).
The highest number of reconnections in Q1 2025 was in the South-West region (51) followed by 42 in the Border region. Non-dwellings were highest in the West (27) with the highest number of UFHDs in the South-West (11). Dublin had the highest proportion of connections being new dwelling completions (98.2%) with the Border region having the lowest (82.9%) (See Table 5).
The average new dwelling size index over the first quarter of 2025 is at 66, a decrease from 71 in 2024. This is likely due to the higher proportion of apartments in the quarter. In general, the decrease in this index since 2016 is driven by both an increase in the proportion of completed dwellings being apartments and a decrease in the size of dwellings, particularly single dwellings (See Table 6). The average new dwelling size index is obtained by linking ESB connections to Building Energy Rating (BER) assessment data from the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) for new dwelling completions (See Table 7 in Background Notes for match rates).
A seasonal adjustment has been applied to the new dwelling completions to show an additional measure of change over time. This allows for a quarter-on-quarter comparison. See Background Notes for more detail on the seasonal adjustment.
For all dwelling types, there was a 2.3% increase in seasonally adjusted completions from 7,186 in Q4 2024 to 7,351 in Q1 2025. For apartment completions there was a larger increase of 11.0% from 2,019 in Q4 2024 to 2,241 in Q1 2025. There was a 1.5% decrease for scheme dwellings between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025, from 3,833 to 3,786 and there was a 0.8% fall for single dwellings, from 1,335 to 1,324 (See Figure 6).
Outside of the largest cities, the urban areas with the most completions in Q1 2025 were: Drogheda (92), Bray, (83), Newbridge (79), Tramore, and Portlaoise (both 64) (See Map 2).
Data is available on new dwelling completions by Dwelling Type and Urban Areas by year and quarter in tables NDA12 and NDQ10. The Urban Areas 2022 geography was created for Census 2022 and defines urban boundaries and built-up areas at the point of the Census. Figures for all time periods in this dataset relate to the boundaries of these areas at this point in April 2022. For more information on these boundaries see the Census 2022 note on Census 2022 Urban Boundaries and Built Up Areas.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (24 April 2025) published New Dwelling Completions Quarter 1 (Q1) 2025. The CSO uses new connections to the electricity network as the basis for statistics on new dwelling completions, a data source that is collected nationally by one organisation in a consistent manner for all dwellings (See Background Notes for more information).
Commenting on the release, Steven Conroy, Statistician, said: “The number of new dwelling completions in January, February, and March (Q1) 2025 was 5,938. This was an increase of 2.0% compared with the 5,819 completions in Q1 2024.
Completions by Dwelling Type
There were 1,781 apartment completions in Q1 2025, which was up 13.4% on the same quarter in 2024. Scheme dwelling completions fell 1.7% from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025 to stand at 3,020. Single dwellings fell 3.5% from 1,178 in Q1 2024 to 1,137 in Q1 2025.
More than half of all completions in Q1 2025 (50.9%) were scheme dwellings, 30.0% were apartments, and 19.1% were single dwellings.
Regional Breakdown
Nearly a third (32.0%) of completions in Q1 2025 were in Dublin, with more than a fifth (20.8%) in the Mid-East region (Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow).
Six of the eight regions of Ireland saw a rise in completions from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025. The region with the largest relative increase in completions was the West (Galway City and County, Mayo, and Roscommon) at 5.8%, while the Border (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo) region saw the second largest relative growth at 5.0%.
For Q1 2025, 73.0% of apartment completions were in Dublin (1,301). In Dublin City, 91.6% of completions were apartments. The most scheme completions were in the Mid-East region. The South-West region (Cork City and County, and Kerry) had the most single completions in Q1 2025.
The most completions in Q1 2025 by Local Electoral Area (LEA) were in Howth-Malahide in Dublin at 386."