Housing commencement notices rise to 2,237 homes in February

Building on 2,237 new homes began in February, according to commencement notice figures issued by the Department of Housing.

The figure was up 20 per cent on the 1,861 housing starts seen in January, which is almost always a quieter month for construction activity.

The 33,006 new homes notified to it since March of last year is the highest rolling 12-month total since comparable data on commencement notices was first collected in March 2014, the Department of Housing said, and the highest level of residential construction activity seen in the Irish market since the Celtic Tiger years.

The February data compares to just 522 housing starts in February 2021, when pandemic restrictions were in place. But the monthly tally is below the 2,419 starts seen in February 2020 and the 2,569 seen in February 2019.

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On a year-to-date basis, the 2022 total of 4,188 housing starts compares to 1,906 in the same period last year, but comes in below the 2020 two-month figure of 4,470 before the pandemic struck.

Housing policy

Commencement notices are formal notices of the number of units being constructed on a site and are given by builders to local authorities two-to-four weeks before construction begins.

While last year saw construction firms race to make up for time lost to Covid lockdowns, the rolling 12-month total suggests the Government is on track to deliver its promise of 33,000 new homes a year from 2021 to 2030, a recommendation of an Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) report and a key policy under the Housing for All strategy published last September.

The number of residential homes for which commencement notices were received has increased every year since 2015, with the exception of 2020 when homebuilding was restricted for a significant period as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.