Eoghan Murphy T.D., Minister for Housing, Planning & Local Government today (14 November, 2019) welcomed the publication of the latest CSO statistics.
I welcome today’s CSO Quarter 3 2019 New Dwellings Completion Report, which confirms a strong upward trend. While it is important to continue our efforts to ensure that this trend is maintained and even further improved, it is encouraging to see today’s results,
Minister Eoghan Murphy said.
The numbers of new homes becoming available for use in the twelve months to end September 2019 was 23,554. This is a 15% increase when compared to the twelve months ending September 2018 (20,418), which is a very positive endorsement of all the work that is being done to ensure that our housing supply is increasing.
Of those new homes available for use, the number of brand new dwelling completions added to the housing stock in the year to end September 2019 was 20,249 up by 19% compared to the year to end September 2018 (17,068).
745 unfinished homes were completed and 2,560 homes that were vacant for at least 2 years were brought back into use in the twelve months to ending September 2019. Increasing new builds, tackling unfinished estates and bringing vacant homes back into use are all targeted as priorities in Rebuilding Ireland.
These very positive trends are further supported by other indicators, such as Planning Permissions which show an increase of 21% in the year to Q2 2019, Commencement Notices increasing by 28% and Registrations up by 7% in the year to the end of September 2019.
The message from today’s CSO report is clear. The on-going efforts by my Department, relevant agencies, local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and other stakeholders to deliver on the goals of Rebuilding Ireland is bearing fruit, but we will not become complacent and will continue to work together to tackle the issue of housing supply,
added the Minister.
The Minister also commented on the CSO Residential Property Price Index also published today with data to end September 2019;
In Dublin, residential property prices decreased for the third month in a row. Whilst prices rose marginally nationally, they rose at a much slower pace than previously seen. This data can also be viewed as evidence that increased housing supply is coming on stream.