There were 7,856 new dwelling completions in January, February, and March (Q1) 2026, a rise of 32.9% on the same three months of 2025 and the highest number of Q1 completions since the series began in 2011.
Apartment completions in Q1 2026 were 2,355, up 33.3% from Q1 2025.
There were 4,082 scheme dwelling completions in Q1 2026, up 34.5% from Q1 2025.
The number of single dwellings completed in Q1 2026 was 1,419, up 27.8% from Q1 2025.
More than half of completions (52%) were scheme dwellings, 30% were apartments, and 18% were single dwellings.
There was an increase in completions from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026 in all regions of Ireland, including a 58% rise in the Border region.
The Local Electoral Area (LEA) with the most completions in Q1 2026 was Clondalkin in County Dublin at 518.
Using the CSO six-way urban/rural classification, nearly 90% of scheme housing completions in Q1 2026 were built in either Cities, Satellite urban towns, Independent urban towns or Rural areas with high urban influence.
Single dwellings are one-off dwellings connected to the ESB network.
Scheme dwellings are houses that form part of a multi-unit development of two or more houses connected to the ESB network.
Apartment dwellings are within a multi-unit development and are specifically identified by the ESB as apartments.
| New Dwelling Completions | ||||
| Single | Scheme | Apartment | Totals | |
| Quarter 1 2025 | 1,110 | 3,034 | 1,767 | 5,911 |
| Quarter 1 2026 | 1,419 | 4,082 | 2,355 | 7,856 |
| % change | 27.8% | 34.5% | 33.3% | 32.9% |
There were 7,856 new dwelling completions in the first quarter of 2026, a rise of 32.9% compared with the same quarter in 2025. This represents the highest number of Q1 completions since the new dwelling completions series began in 2011. Completions increased by 34.5% for scheme houses from 3,034 in Q1 2025 to 4,082 in Q1 2026.
The Q1 data for 2026 also shows that:
The primary data source used for the New Dwellings Completions series is the ESB Networks new domestic connections dataset, where the date that the connection is energised determines the date of completion. It is accepted that the ESB domestic connections dataset is overestimating new dwellings and the CSO has adjusted for this overcount by using additional information from the ESB and other data sources.
ESB connections are classified into four categories: new dwelling completions, UFHDs (previously finished houses in Unfinished Housing Developments), reconnections and non-dwellings. The dwelling type (single, scheme, apartment) and urban-rural divide are defined by the ESB Network. See Background Notes for a more detailed discussion of the classification.
The New Dwelling Completions series is based on the number of domestic dwellings connected by the ESB Network to the electricity supply and may not accord precisely with geographical boundaries.
The CSO has utilised other available data sources to validate and enhance the ESB connections dataset. However, this was only possible where the connections dataset could be confidently linked to another dataset using unique identifiers or by address matching. As the level of Eircode collection, coverage and storage increases across data sources in the housing sector, it is expected that the precision of estimates on new dwelling completions can be further enhanced.
The ESB connections data - with adjustments as detailed above - is the most consistent manner of measuring housing completions with connections made in the same way by one organisation, ESB Networks, across the country. No other currently available sources have this same level of consistency nor accuracy in identifying numbers of individual units.
There has been a significant level of construction output in the student accommodation sector. These are generally connected to the ESB Network as commercial connections and are therefore not included in the ESB domestic connections dataset used for the new dwelling completions. Further to this the data available on this sector is on a “bed space” basis and it is not currently possible to report on it as dwellings, which are self-contained units of living accommodation. Based on consultation with stakeholders in this sector, student accommodation may be included in future New Dwelling Completions reports as a separate category. Information on completed student bed spaces is provided by the Higher Education Authority (HEA). They have detailed to the CSO that there was no new bed spaces completed in Q1 2026.
In Q1 2026 the number of completions in urban areas was 6,713, increasing 34% from 5,009 in Q1 2025. In rural areas, the number of completions also rose, with 1,143 in Q1 2026, up from 902 in Q1 2025. Of all completions in the quarter, 85.5% were in urban areas (See Table 2).
All of the eight regions of Ireland saw rises in completions from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026. The largest relative increase was in the Border (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo) at 58%, South-West (Cork City, Cork County, and Kerry) (+54%), South-East (Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Wexford) (45%), and Dublin (34%) regions.
More than three in ten (32.3%) completions in Q1 2026 were in Dublin, with less than a fifth (18.7%) in the Mid-East region (Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow) (See Figure 2).
More than seven in ten (77.7%) apartment completions in Q1 2026 were in Dublin (1,831). In Dublin City, 95.3% of completions in the quarter were apartments. The most scheme dwelling completions were in the Mid-East (Kildare, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow) region (1,085), while Cork County was the local authority with the most scheme completions (473). The West region (Galway City, Galway County, Mayo, and Roscommon) had the most single completions in Q1 2026 (232), with Cork County (146) the local authority with the most one-off dwelling completions (See Table 3).
Classification into local authorities has taken into account boundary changes between Cork City and Cork County which came into effect in May 2019. All historical data within the tables below and the PxStat interactive tables have been revised to now be based on the new boundaries. However, data within archived releases remain unchanged.
The most completions by Local Electoral Area (LEA) in Q1 2026 was in Clondalkin (518). North Inner-City Dublin was the LEA with the second highest number of completions at 255. Outside of Dublin, Drogheda Rural (162) and Cork City North East (140) were the other LEAs in the top ten with the most completions this quarter (See Map 1).
New dwelling completions by LEA going back to 2012 by year and quarter can be viewed in the PxStat tables NDA05 and NDQ09. There is also data available by Eircode Routing Key by year and quarter in PxStat tables NDA01 and NDQ07.
There was a total of 8,168 new domestic ESB connections in Q1 2026, an increase of 29.1% from 6,325 in Q1 2025. The ESB domestic connections series continues to show a comparable trend to the New Dwelling Completion (NDC) series compiled by the CSO as shown in Figure 3. The number of new dwelling completions as a percentage of total ESB domestic connections was 96.2% in Q1 2026.
There are still some small differences in volume between the two series. The starting point for the NDC series is the ESB domestic connections dataset, with adjustments made to account for previously finished houses in unfinished housing developments (UFHDs), reconnections and non-dwellings as shown in Figure 4 and Table 4.
A property that is reconnected to the ESB Network after having been disconnected for more than two years is assigned a new Meter Point Reference Number (MPRN) and is therefore included in the ESB new connections datasets and is here considered to be a reconnection. There were 238 reconnections in Q1 2026, a decrease of 18.5% from 292 in Q1 2025. This fall in reconnections after two years reflects the decline in Non-Payment of Account Disconnections since 2019 reported by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities.
The number of previously finished dwellings in unfinished housing developments (UFHDs) was still low with 19 in Q1 2026. The number of non-dwellings, mostly farm buildings, fell 48.1% from 106 in Q1 2025 to 55 in Q1 2026. UFHDs accounted for just 0.2% of all connections this quarter (See Figure 4 and Table 4).
The highest number of reconnections in Q1 2026 was in the West region (56) followed by 33 in the South-West region. Non-dwellings were highest in the Mid-East (11) with the highest number of UFHDs in the South-West (7). Dublin had the highest proportion of connections being new dwelling completions (98.7%) with the West region having the lowest (89.2%) (See Table 5).
The average new dwelling size index over the first quarter of 2026 was 70, a slight increase from 69 in 2025. This is likely due to the higher proportion of scheme houses in the quarter. In general, the decrease in this index since 2016 has been driven by both an increase in the proportion of completed dwellings being apartments and a decrease in the size of dwellings, particularly single dwellings (See Table 6). The average new dwelling size index is obtained by linking ESB connections to Building Energy Rating (BER) assessment data from the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) for new dwelling completions (See Table 7 in Background Notes for match rates).
A seasonal adjustment has been applied to the new dwelling completions to show an additional measure of change over time. This allows for a quarter-on-quarter comparison. See Background Notes for more detail on the seasonal adjustment.
For all dwelling types, there was a 1.8% rise in seasonally adjusted completions from Q4 2025 to Q1 2026. There was a 4.9% increase for scheme dwellings and a 3.9% increase for single dwellings between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026. For apartment completions there was a decrease of 3.9% comparing the latest two quarters of data (See NDQ01).
This quarter includes new analysis of new dwelling completions using the CSO six-way urban/rural classification, which was defined and used in Urban and Rural Life in Ireland, 2025. Figure 6 shows that 78% of apartment completions in Q1 2026 were in Cities. Nearly 90% of scheme housing completions were built in either Cities, Satellite urban towns, Independent urban towns or Rural areas with high urban influence. For single house completions, 82% were in either Rural areas with high urban influence, Rural areas with moderate urban influence or Highly rural/remote areas.
New dwelling completions by the six-way urban/rural classification going back to 2011 by year and dwelling type can be viewed in the PxStat table NDA13.
Note that this definition of urban and rural locations differs from that described above, which is designated by ESB networks.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (30 April 2026) published New Dwelling Completions Quarter 1 (Q1) 2026. The CSO uses new connections to the electricity network as the basis for statistics on new dwelling completions, a data source that is collected nationally by one organisation in a consistent manner for all dwellings (See Background Notes for more information).
Commenting on the release, Steven Conroy, Statistician, said: “The number of new dwelling completions in January, February, and March (Q1) 2026 was 7,856. This was an increase of 32.9% compared with the 5,911 completions in Q1 2025. This represents the highest number of Q1 completions since the series began in 2011.
Completions by Dwelling Type
There were 2,355 apartment completions in Q1 2026, which was up 33.3% on the same quarter in 2025. Scheme dwelling completions rose 34.5% from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026 to stand at 4,082. Single dwellings increased by 27.8% from 1,110 in Q1 2025 to 1,419 in Q1 2026.
More than half of all completions in Q1 2026 (52%) were scheme dwellings, 30% were apartments, and 18% were single dwellings.
Regional Breakdown
Nearly a third (32.3%) of completions in Q1 2026 were in Dublin, with less than a fifth (18.7%) in the Mid-East region (Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow).
All of the eight regions of Ireland saw a rise in completions from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026. The region with the largest relative increase in completions was the Border (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo) at 58%, while the South-West (Cork City, Cork County, and Kerry) region saw the second largest relative growth at 54%.
For Q1 2026, 77.7% of apartment completions were in Dublin (1,831). In Dublin City, 95.3% of completions were apartments. The most scheme completions were in the Mid-East region. The West region (Galway City, Galway County, Mayo, and Roscommon) had the most single completions in Q1 2026.
The most completions in Q1 2026 by Local Electoral Area (LEA) were in Clondalkin in Dublin at 518.
In this release, a new section was added which uses the CSO six-way urban/rural classification to analyse new dwelling completions by dwelling type. Under this classification, 78% of apartments completions in Q1 2026 were in Cities. Nearly 90% of scheme housing completions were built in either Cities, Satellite urban towns, Independent urban towns or Rural areas with high urban influence. For single house completions, 82% were in either Rural areas with high urban influence, Rural areas with moderate urban influence or Highly rural/remote areas."