Planning permission for new homes rises by 24%

Planning approval for new houses and apartments jumped by 24 per cent in the period July to September compared to the same three months a year earlier.

New figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show planning permission for houses was up 31.5 per cent from 1,783 in the third quarter of 2014 to 2,345 in the same period a year later.

Planning approval was apartments declined by 12.2 per cent over the same period from 361 units to 317.

One-off houses accounted for 35.7 per cent of all units granted planning permission during the quarter under review, CSO said.

Overall, the total number of planning approvals given amounted to 5,002, up 15.6 per cent for the same period a year earlier when permission was given to 4,328 units.

Total floor area planned amounted to 1,306 thousand square metres in the third quarter, of which 37.4 per cent was for new dwellings. Some 40.2 per cent was for what CSO termed ‘new constructions’, while 22.4 per cent was for extensions.

Planning approval for new buildings for agriculture rose to 301 from 191 last year.

A recent study by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) and Future Analytics Consulting, which was published last week, showed planning permissions for new home schemes in the Dublin region fell by 59 per cent in the third quarter.

Approval was granted for just 13 residential schemes of 25 units or more during the three month period. Amounting to 852 units, it compares to 2,062 units in the preceding quarter.