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New Dwelling Completions Q4 2024

Over 30,000 new dwellings completed in 2024

Online ISSN: 2811-583X
CSO statistical publication, , 11am

Key Findings

  • There were 30,330 new dwelling completions in the whole of 2024, a decrease of 6.7% from 2023.

  • The number of apartments completed in 2024 was 8,763, down 24.1% from 2023.

  • There were 16,200 scheme dwelling completions in 2024, a rise of 4.6% from 2023.

  • There were 5,367 single dwellings completed in 2024, which was a fall of 2.2% from 2023.

  • In 2024, 53.4% of completions were scheme dwellings, 28.9% were apartments, and 17.7% were single dwellings.

  • More than half (54.3%) of completions for the full year of 2024 were in Dublin or the Mid-East (Kildare, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow).

  • By Local Electoral Area, the most completions in 2024 were in Donaghmede in Dublin (1,178). Over 500 of these completions in Donaghmede were Q4 2024.

  • There was a fall of 17.4% in seasonally adjusted new dwelling completions from Q3 2024 to Q4 2024.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (23 January 2025) published New Dwelling Completions Quarter 4 (Q4) 2024. The CSO uses new residential 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 2024 was 30,330, a decrease of 6.7% from 2023. In October, November, and December (Q4) 2024 there were 8,732 completions, a fall of 14.5% from Q4 2023.

Completions by Dwelling Type

Between 2023 and 2024, the largest relative decrease was in apartment completions, which were down 24.1% from 11,542 in 2023 to 8,763 in 2024.

The number of scheme dwellings completed rose by 4.6% to 16,200 in 2024, and there was a slight decline of 2.2% to 5,367 in single dwellings completed in 2024. Among completions in 2024, 53.4% were scheme dwellings, 28.9% were apartments, and 17.7% were single dwellings. Analysis of the data shows that the proportion of apartments being built has been rising over recent years from 16.3% of completions in 2019 to 28.9% in 2024.

For Q4 2024, there was a 35.3% fall in apartments completed compared with the same quarter in 2023. There was a 1.6% reduction in scheme dwelling completions and a slight increase of 0.1% in single dwelling completions from Q4 2023.

Regional Breakdown

Five regions Dublin, Midlands, Mid-East, Border, and the West of Ireland, saw a decrease in new dwelling completions between 2023 and 2024 with the highest fall in the Mid-East (Kildare, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow) at 17.5%. Over the year, some 35.9% of national completions were in Dublin with 18.4% in the Mid-East.

Between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024 the number of new dwelling completions fell in Dublin, the Midlands (Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath), the Mid-East, and the South-East (Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, and Waterford), ranging from a 53.0% fall in the Border (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo) region to a 9.5% fall in the Midlands.

There were 8,763 apartments completed nationally in 2024, representing 28.9% of the total number of completions. In Dublin, 6,574 apartments were completed, which accounted for 60.4% of all completions in Dublin in 2024, and 75.0% of all apartments completed nationally.

More than one quarter (25.7%) of all scheme completions were in the Mid-East in 2024 and 16.4% of all single dwellings completed were in the West (Galway City and County, Mayo, and Roscommon).

Donaghmede in Dublin was the Local Electoral Area (LEA) with the most completions in 2024 at 1,178, followed by two other Dublin areas, Clondalkin (1,054), and Killiney-Shankill (940)."

Definitions for this Release

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
 SingleSchemeApartmentTotals
20235,49015,49311,54232,525
20245,36716,2008,76330,330
 % change-2.2%4.6%-24.1%-6.7%
     
Quarter 4 20231,4784,7503,98910,217
Quarter 4 20241,4804,6722,5808,732
 % change0.1%-1.6%-35.3%-14.5%

Biggest Decline in 2024 was for Apartment Completions

There were 30,330 new dwelling completions in 2024, was a 6.7% decrease from 32,525 completed over the whole of 2023. There was a drop of 24.1% in apartment completions from 11,542 in 2023 to 8,763 in 2024.

In Q4 2024, there were 8,732 new dwelling completions. This was a 14.5% fall from 10,217 in Q4 2023.

The Q4 data for 2024 also shows that:

There was a 35.3% decrease in apartments completed in Q4 2024 compared with Q4 2023, down from 3,989 to 2,580.

Scheme dwellings rose by 4.6% from 15,493 in 2023 to 16,200 in 2024. But these fell by 1.6% from 4,750 in Q4 2023 to 4,672 in Q4 2024.

For single dwellings there was a 2.2% decline in completions from 5,490 in 2023 to 5,367 in 2024 and from Q4 2023 to Q4 2024 there was a slight rise of 0.1% from 1,478 to 1,480.

For the whole of 2024, 53.4% of completions were scheme completions with 28.9% apartments and 17.7% single dwellings. In 2023, the split was 47.6% scheme, 35.5% apartments and 16.9% single dwellings. Scheme dwellings accounted for 53.5% of new dwelling completions in Q4 2024, followed by 29.5% apartments. and 16.9% single dwellings. (See Figure 1 and Table 1).

Figure 1: Number of new dwelling completions by type of dwelling Q1 2016 - Q4 2024
Table 1: Number of new dwelling completions by type of dwelling, Q1 2011 - Q4 2024

ESB Domestic Connections Dataset used as a Primary Source

The primary data source used for the New Dwelling Completions series is 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.  

Student Accommodation

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 100 new bed spaces were completed in Q4 2024 and 1,205 in the whole of 2024. 

Fewer Completions in Urban and Rural Areas

The ESB domestic connections dataset provides information on the type of connection and whether it is in an urban or rural area. The number of completions in urban areas in 2024 was 25,834, a fall of 7.7% from 27,999 in 2023. In rural areas, there was a small decrease of 0.7% from 4,526 completions in 2023 to 4,496 in 2024. In Q4 2024 the number of completions in urban areas was 7,507, falling 16.4% from 8,976 in Q4 2023. In rural areas, there was a small decrease of 1.3% from 1,241 in Q4 2023 to 1,225 in Q4 2024. Among all completions in 2024, 85.2% were in urban areas (See Table 2).

Table 2: Number of new dwelling completions by urban-rural divide, Q1 2011 - Q4 2024

Completions by Region

Five of the eight regions of Ireland saw a fall in completions between 2023 and 2024, with an increase in the other three regions. This relative decrease was greatest in the Mid-East where there was a 17.5% reduction from 6,761 completions in 2023 to 5,581 in 2024 (See Figure 2).

There were 6,574 apartment completions in Dublin in 2024 representing three-quarters (75.0%) of all apartments completed nationally in the year. 

More than one-quarter (25.7%) of scheme completions in 2024 were in the Mid-East. The West was the region with the most single dwelling completions in 2024 at close to 900 (878), and this represented 16.4% of all such completions nationally.

The most apartment completions by Local Authority area in 2024 were in Dublin City with 3,201. For Q4 2024 this was also highest in Dublin City at 1,115. The most scheme completions for the year were in Cork County (1,677) with Fingal being the highest for Q4 (791). Cork County had the highest number of single dwellings for the year (561) and the quarter (163) among Local Authority areas (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 interactive tables on our open data portal, data.cso.ie (PxStat) have been revised to use the new boundaries. However, data within archived releases remain unchanged. 

Figure 2: Year on year comparison of new dwelling completions by region (2023 - 2024)
Table 3: Number of new dwelling completions by type of dwelling and Local Authority, Q4 2024

The 10 Local Electoral Areas with the most Completions in 2024 were all in Dublin, Meath, and Wicklow

The three Local Electoral Areas (LEAs) with the highest number of dwelling completions in 2024 were all in Dublin, with 1,178 dwellings completed in Donaghmede, 1,054 in Clondalkin, and 940 in Killiney-Shankill. The top 10 LEAs with the most completions in 2024 were all either in Dublin, Meath, or Wicklow (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. Data is also available for new dwelling completions by Dwelling Type and Urban Area by year and quarter in tables NDA12 and NDQ10. Urban Area (also known as Built Up Area) is a new geography created for Census 2022 which defines urban boundaries.

Map 1: New dwelling completions by Local Electoral Area 2024

New Dwelling Completions and ESB Connections

There were 9,216 new domestic ESB connections in Q4 2024, a decrease of 15.3% from 10,886 new connections in Q4 2023. In total in 2024, there were 32,252 new connections, a fall of 8.5% from 35,236 new connections in 2023. The ESB domestic connections series continues to show a comparable trend to the New Dwelling Completions (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 94.7% this quarter and 94.0% this year.

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.

Figure 3: New Dwelling Completions compared with ESB connections Q1 2016 - Q4 2024

Fall in Reconnections

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 290 reconnections in Q4 2024, a decrease of 25.1% from 387 in Q4 2023. 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) is still very low with 31 in Q4 2024. The number of non-dwellings - mostly farm buildings - fell by 29.4% from 231 in Q4 2023 to 163 in this quarter. UFHDs accounted for just 0.3% of all connections this quarter (See Figure 4 and Table 4).

Figure 4: UFHDs, reconnections and non-dwellings Q1 2016 - Q4 2024
Table 4: Number of ESB connections by type of connection, Q1 2011 - Q4 2024

Type of Connection and NUTS3 Region

The highest number of reconnections in Q4 2024 was in the Border region (66) followed by 55 in the West region. Non-dwelling connections were highest in the West region at 30. The highest number of UFHDs connections was in the Border, Midlands, and West regions, all at eight. Dublin had the highest proportion of connections also being new dwelling completions (98.9%) with the Border region having the lowest (81.6%) (See Table 5).

Table 5: Number of ESB connections by type of connection and NUTS3 region, Q4 2024

No Change in the Average New Dwelling Size in 2024

Figure 5 shows the average new dwelling size index stayed at 71 in 2024, which represents no change in the index from 2023. This means that the average size of dwellings completed in 2024 was the same as in 2023. However, as can be seen in Figure 5, the average size of dwellings completed since 2016 has been reducing. This is driven by both an increase in the proportion of completed dwellings which were apartments and a general 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 BER assessment data from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for new dwelling completions (See Table 7 in Background Notes for match rates).

Figure 5: Average new dwelling size index (2011 - 2024)
Table 6: Average floor size and weight in mix of new dwelling completions for dwelling types by year (2011 - 2024)

Fall in Seasonally Adjusted Completions between Q3 2024 and Q4 2024

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 17.4% fall in seasonally adjusted completions from 8,763 in Q3 2024 to 7,235 in Q4 2024. For apartment completions there was a larger fall of 25.4% from 2,750 in Q3 2024 to 2,052 in Q4 2024. There was an 18.6% decrease for scheme dwellings between Q3 2024 and Q4 2024, from 4,707 to 3,834 and there was a 3.3% rise for single dwellings, from 1,306 to 1,349 (See Figure 6).

Figure 6: Seasonally adjusted new dwelling completions by type of dwelling Q1 2016 - Q4 2024

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