There were 10,154 new dwelling completions in July, August, and September (Q3) 2026, a rise of 10.4% on the same three months of 2025.
Apartment completions in Q3 2026 were 3,464, up 9.8% from Q3 2025.
There were 5,163 scheme dwelling completions in Q3 2026, up 13.5% from Q3 2025.
The number of single dwellings completed in Q3 2026 was 1,527, up 2.1% from Q3 2025.
More than half of completions (51%) were scheme dwellings, 34% were apartments, and 15% were single dwellings.
There was a decrease in completions from Q3 2025 to Q3 2026 in two regions of Ireland, an 8% fall in the Mid-West (Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary) region and down 6% in the Border (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo) region.
The Local Electoral Area (LEA) with the most completions in Q3 2026 was Clondalkin in County Dublin at 476.
Using the CSO six-way urban/rural classification, over 90% of scheme completions were built in either cities, Satellite urban towns or Independent urban towns.
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 3 2025 | 1,496 | 4,547 | 3,154 | 9,197 |
| Quarter 3 2026 | 1,527 | 5,163 | 3,464 | 10,154 |
| % change | 2.1% | 13.5% | 9.8% | 10.4% |
There were 10,154 new dwelling completions in Q3 2026, a rise of 10.4% compared with the Q3 2025. Scheme completions increased by 13.5% from 4,547 in Q3 2025 to 5,163 in Q3 2026.
The Q3 data for 2026 also shows:
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 were 383 new bed spaces completed in Q3 2026.
Table 2 shows that 72% of apartment completions in Q3 2026 were in Cities. Nearly 93% of scheme housing completions were built in either Cities, Satellite urban towns or Independent urban towns. For single house completions, more than 90% 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.
There was a relative decrease in new dwelling completions in only two regions of Ireland, down 8% in the Mid-West (Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary) region and a 6% fall in the Border (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo) region from Q3 2025 to Q3 2026.
Six of the eight regions of Ireland saw rises in completions from Q3 2025 to Q3 2026. The largest relative increase was in the West (Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon) at 33%, followed by the South-East (Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Wexford) (24%), and South-West (Cork and Kerry) at 22%. More than a third (37%) of completions in Q3 2026 were in Dublin, with less than a fifth (18%) in the Mid-East region (Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow) (See Figure 2).
More than two-thirds (67%) of apartment completions in Q3 2026 were in Dublin (2,311). In Dublin City, 87% of completions in Q3 2026 were apartments (1,061). The most scheme dwelling completions were in the Dublin (1,301) region, while Fingal was the local authority with the most scheme completions (564). The West (Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon) had the most single dwelling completions in Q3 2026 (277), with Cork County (188) 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 Q3 2026 were in Clondalkin (476). Killiney-Shankill in Dublin was the LEA with the second highest number of completions at 430. There were only two LEAs outside Dublin, Cork City South East (288) and Cork City North East (206) in the top 10 LEAs by number of completions in the 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 10,427 new domestic ESB connections in Q3 2026, an increase of 7.2% from 9,728 in Q3 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 97.4% in Q3 2026, which is the highest it has been since the series began in 2011.
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 156 reconnections in Q3 2026, a decrease of 54.8% from 345 in Q3 2025.
The number of previously finished dwellings in unfinished housing developments (UFHDs) was low at 15 in Q3 2026. The number of non-dwellings, mostly farm buildings, fell 42% from 175 in Q3 2025 to 102 in Q3 2026. UFHDs accounted for just 0.3% of all connections in Q3 2025 (See Figure 4 and Table 4).
The highest number of reconnections in Q3 2026 was in the West region (35) followed by 27 in the South-West region. Non-dwellings were highest in the South-West (21) with the highest number of UFHDs in the Border (5). Dublin had the highest proportion of connections being new dwelling completions (99.6%) with the West region having the lowest (92.1%) (See Table 5).
The average new dwelling size index over the first three quarters of 2026 was 66, down from 68 in 2025. However, as can be seen in Figure 5, the average size of dwellings completed since 2016 has been reducing. This is driven by both an increase in the proportion of completed dwellings which were apartments and a general 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. Please refer to the Background Notes for more detail on the seasonal adjustment.
For all dwelling types, there was a 9% increase in seasonally adjusted completions from Q2 2026 to Q3 2026. There was an 11% increase for scheme dwellings and a 4% increase for single dwellings between Q2 2026 and Q3 2026. For apartment completions there was an increase of 7% comparing the latest two quarters of data (See NDQ01).
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (29 October 2026) published New Dwelling Completions Quarter 3 (Q3) 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 July, August, September (Q3) 2026 was 10,154. This was an increase of 10.4% compared with the 9,197 completions in Q3 2025. In the first nine months of 2026, there were 26,833 new dwelling completions, which was an increase of 10.6% on the same period in 2025. Scheme completions between January and September 2026 were up 14.5% when compared with the same period in 2025.
Completions by Dwelling Type
There were 3,464 apartment completions in Q3 2026, which was up 9.8% on Q3 2025. Scheme dwelling completions rose by 13.5% from Q3 2025 to stand at 5,163 to Q3 2026. Single dwelling completions rose by 2.1% from 1,496 in Q3 2025 to 1,527 in Q3 2026. More than half of all completions in Q3 2026 (51%) were scheme dwellings, 34% were apartments, and 15% were single dwellings.
Regional Breakdown
More than a third (37%) of completions in Q3 2026 were in Dublin, with less than a fifth (18%) in the Mid-East region (Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow).
There was a relative decrease in completions in two regions of Ireland: the Mid-West (Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary) region was down 8% and there was a 6% fall in the Border (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo) region from Q3 2025 to Q3 2026. The region with the largest relative increase in completions was the West (Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon) at 33%, while the South-East (Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Wexford) saw the second largest relative growth at 24%.
For Q3 2026, 67% of apartment completions were in Dublin (2,311). In Dublin City, 87% of completions were apartments. The most scheme completions (1,301) were in the Dublin region. The West (Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon) had the most single dwelling completions in Q3 2026 at 277. The most completions in Q3 2026 by Local Electoral Area (LEA) were in Clondalkin in Dublin at 476."