The number of homes built in Dublin city rose last year for the first time in eight years, according the latest figures from the Department of the Environment. The number of houses and apartments that were completed, the number on which construction started and the number of homes for which planning permission was granted by Dublin City Council are all at their highest levels since the boom.
While the final figures for the year have yet to be collated, up to November last 812 homes had been built in the city – the highest number to be completed since 2010 – and the first time numbers have increased year on year since the height of the construction boom in 2006 when almost 7,500 homes were built.
The number of apartments and houses completed remained high in 2007 at 6,678. In 2008, there was a substantial slide with more than 1,300 fewer homes built, bringing that year’s total to 5,348. The following year however, the contraction of the housing market was obvious with 2,397 homes completed.
By 2010, the cranes were disappearing from the city’s skies and the number of homes completed dipped below the 1,000 mark to 911. Numbers fell by 40 per cent the following year to 557. Here the dramatic falls stopped and turned to a slow dwindling, with 507 homes completed in 2012 and 502 in 2013.
The growth in 2014 of the numbers built, which is based on the number of new homes connected to an electricity supply, is in part a reflection of construction activity taking off in later 2012 and 2013.
However a proportion of the completed homes were in previously unfinished estates on which construction activity had stopped when the crash hit and to which builders returned over the last year.
The resurgence of the industry can more clearly be seen through the number of homes on which construction started in the last year, which, to November was almost 2½ times greater than all of 2013. These figures were also an earlier indicator of the construction crash.
In 2006, work started on 5,613 homes, according to commencement notices filed with the council. The following year the number of units for which commencement notices were filed almost halved to 2,906.
In 2008, numbers again fell to 1,918 but the full force of the crash was felt in 2009 when work was started on just 325 homes in the city. In 2010, construction started on 179 homes, while in 2011, there was a record low when work got under way on just 66 homes.
A significant bounce in 2012 saw construction start on 202 units, but there was a fall again in 2013 back to 145. Up to November 2014, however, commencement notices for 350 units had been filed with the council. The number of residential units for which planning permission has been granted by the council gives an indication of the likely future output of homes in the city.
Planning permission is generally valid for a five-year period, although not all developers securing permission go on to build, while some permissions granted before this period do secure extension before they expire.
Taking developments of more than five houses or apartments, permission was granted in 2009 for 507 homes in the city. In 2010 that had fallen back to 197. The lowest number of residential units granted in the last five years was in 2011 when just 151 got permission.
A recovery in the number started in 2012 with estates with 213 homes being granted permission, while 399 homes were granted permission in 2013. The most recent figures available from the council show that by October last year, 544 houses and apartments were granted planning permission.
