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The number of housing units that began construction in 2024 increased to 60,240. Alamy

Housing target missed: The number of homes built last year actually fell by 6.7%

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien promised completion figures would reach up to 40,000 last year.

GOVERNMENT MISSED THEIR housing target last year and the number of homes that were completed decreased, according to new figures by the Central Statistics Office.

A total of 30,330 new homes were built last year. The figure is 6.7% less than 2023 and just under 10,000 units less than what Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien and Taoiseach Simon Harris promised voters would be completed last year

O’Brien told reporters that completion rates would reach up to 40,000 or, at least, the “high thirties” last year.

The majority of homes, 16,200 dwellings, were properties built in estates (what the government refers to as ‘housing schemes’). The completion of these types of properties increased by 4.6% last year.

Every other type of dwelling, apartments and single houses, fell last year. Over 8,760 apartments were completed last year, down by 24.1% compared to 2023, while 5,367 single dwellings were completed – a 2.2% decrease.

Housing experts at Bank of Ireland said the “surprise decline” of completions in the fourth quarter of last year – a period that O’Brien said completions would increase – was due to a volatile apartment market.

The bank still believe that figures could bounce back, as the number of housing units that began construction in 2024 increased to 60,240. Its economic research unit said that figure represents “rapid expansion” in the construction industry.

For that reason, Bank of Ireland still feel confident that their original prediction, of 45,000 completions in 2025, can remain unchanged. Experts noted, however, that there is still “exceptional uncertainty” around all predictions.

The incoming government has committed to ramp up construction in Ireland to build 300,000 homes by the end of 2030.

Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin called out Harris, Martin and O’Brien for continually promising voters that 40,000 homes would be built. He said that the incoming government’s planning is “in tatters”.

“Their public and private housing targets for last year were too low,” Ó Broin said in a statement. “The government has not only missed their social and affordable housing targets but also their overall target.”

Social Democrats’ housing spokesperson Rory Hearn described the figures as “shocking”. 

“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have consistently demonstrated that they are completely incapable of hitting their own housing targets – targets that were already unambitious to begin with,” he said.

Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice also called into question the “misleading” promises given by members of government. He said it was unacceptable for them to “hide the truth” from voters given the crises in housing and homelessness.

O’Brien or the Department of Housing have yet to respond to the figures published today. The Journal has contacted a spokesperson for comment.

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