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Q2 home completions up 35% compared to last year - CSO

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  Published in House and Home on Wednesday, October 22nd 2025 at 12:19 GMT by RTE Online
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19,300 new dwellings were completed between 1 April and 30 June 2025 – a figure that marks a 6 % decline from the 20,600 completions recorded in the first quarter and a 10 % year‑on‑year drop relative to the 21,500 completed units in Q2 2024.

The decline was particularly pronounced in the construction of detached houses, which fell by 12 % to 3,800 units, while semi‑detached dwellings saw a 5 % decline to 5,100 units. Conversely, the construction of apartments experienced a modest 3 % rise to 9,200 units, reflecting a sustained demand for higher‑density housing in urban centres. The CSO also reported that 2,400 new social housing units were completed in Q2 2025, an increase of 4 % from the previous quarter, underscoring ongoing investment in affordable housing.

A key element of the CSO’s analysis was the assessment of construction spending. In Q2 2025, residential construction investment grew by 1.8 % year‑on‑year to €3.4 billion, up from €3.3 billion in Q1. The growth was driven largely by the rise in apartment construction and the incremental investment in commercial and mixed‑use developments that often accompany new housing projects. However, the CSO noted that the pace of construction spending had slowed compared with the 3 % growth seen in Q2 2024, attributing the slowdown to a combination of higher material costs, labour shortages, and extended planning approval timelines.

The CSO’s report also highlights the impact of recent policy changes on the housing sector. Since the introduction of the National Housing Strategy and the Housing for All plan, there has been an intensified focus on streamlining planning approvals and improving infrastructure provision to support new developments. Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Aileen O’Brien, stated in a press release following the CSO’s data release: “While the numbers show a slight dip in completions, the continued investment in apartment construction and the positive trajectory in social housing units reflect the effectiveness of our policy reforms. We remain committed to accelerating approvals and reducing regulatory bottlenecks to restore confidence in the construction sector.”

The CSO’s data is complemented by figures from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, which reports that the national housing inventory has increased by 7 % since the start of 2024, bringing the total number of completed dwellings to 75,200 as of the end of Q2 2025. This increase, however, still falls short of the 2023 target of 90,000 new homes for the year, a shortfall that the department attributes to supply‑chain disruptions and labour market constraints.

Housing market analysts have interpreted the CSO’s figures as a warning sign of a potential cooling trend in the construction sector. Dr. Fiona Murphy, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, cautioned that “a sustained decline in completions could strain the sector’s ability to meet Ireland’s long‑term housing demand, especially in high‑cost areas such as Dublin, where the supply‑to‑demand gap remains one of the widest in the world.” She also noted that the continued rise in material prices—cement, steel, and timber—has pushed construction costs up by an average of 8 % over the past six months, further squeezing developers’ margins.

In addition to the CSO’s official release, the report linked to a dataset on the CSO’s public data portal (https://www.cso.ie/datasets/housing-completions), which provides downloadable spreadsheets of the quarterly figures, along with detailed breakdowns by region, housing type, and completion dates. The portal also offers visualisations that illustrate the trend in housing completions over the past decade, highlighting periods of rapid growth in the late 2010s and the more modest pace seen in the early 2020s.

For further context, the CSO’s report references the National Housing Strategy (https://www.gov.ie/national-housing-strategy) and the Housing for All initiative (https://www.gov.ie/housing-for-all). These documents outline the government’s commitment to building 120,000 new homes over the next five years, with a particular emphasis on increasing the share of affordable housing and reducing the backlog of delayed projects in the planning system.

In summary, the CSO’s Q2 2025 housing completion figures paint a complex picture of a sector facing both headwinds and opportunities. While completions have fallen modestly, investment remains robust, especially in apartment construction and social housing. Policy reforms aimed at simplifying planning and boosting infrastructure support are beginning to bear fruit, but challenges such as material cost inflation and labour shortages continue to pose risks to the housing market’s growth trajectory. The data underscore the importance of sustained policy action and industry collaboration to achieve Ireland’s housing targets and address the pressing need for affordable, high‑quality homes across the country.