There were 32,695 new dwelling completions in the whole of 2023, an increase of 10.0% from 2022.
In October, November, and December (Q4) 2023 there were 10,289 completions, a rise of 13.0% from Q4 2022.
The number of apartments completed in 2023 was 11,642, up 28.0% from 2022.
There were 15,505 scheme dwelling completions in 2023, a rise of 2.4% from 2022, while 5,548 single dwellings were completed, which was a growth of 0.9% from 2022.
In 2023, 47.4% of completions were scheme dwellings, a further 35.6% were apartments, and 17.0% were single dwellings.
Close to six in ten completions in Q4 2023 and for the full year 2023 were in Dublin or the Mid-East (Kildare, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow). Of all completions in Dublin in 2023, some 71.9% were apartments.
By Local Electoral Area, the most completions in 2023 were in Glencullen-Sandyford while the most in Q4 2023 were in South-West Inner City Dublin.
There has been a small rise of 2.3% in seasonally adjusted new dwelling completions from Q3 2023 to Q4 2023.
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 | |
| 2022 | 5,496 | 15,138 | 9,092 | 29,726 |
| 2023 | 5,548 | 15,505 | 11,642 | 32,695 |
| % change | 0.9% | 2.4% | 28.0% | 10.0% |
| Quarter 4 2022 | 1,524 | 4,823 | 2,758 | 9,105 |
| Quarter 4 2023 | 1,497 | 4,752 | 4,040 | 10,289 |
| % change | -1.8% | -1.5% | 46.5% | 13.0% |
There were 32,695 new dwelling completions in 2023, including 10,289 in the fourth quarter. This is a 10.0% increase from the completions from 29,726 over the whole of 2022 and for the quarter a 13.0% rise from 9,105 in Q4 2022. For the full year, there was a rise of 28.0% in apartment completions from 9,092 in 2022 to 11,642 in 2023.
The Q4 data for 2023 also shows that:
There was a 46.5% increase in apartments completed in Q4 2023 compared with Q4 2022, up from 2,758 to 4,040.
Scheme dwellings rose 2.4% from 15,138 in 2022 to 15,505 in 2023 and decreased by 1.5% from 4,823 in Q4 2022 to 4,752 in Q4 2023.
For single dwellings there was a rise of 0.9% from 5,496 in 2022 to 5,548 in 2023 and from Q4 2022 to Q4 2023 a fall of 1.8% from 1,524 to 1,497.
For the whole of 2023, there were 47.4% scheme completions with 35.6% apartments and 17.0% single dwellings. In 2022 the split was 50.9% scheme, 30.6% apartments and 18.5% single dwellings. Scheme dwellings accounted for 46.2% of new dwelling completions in Q4 2023 with 39.3% apartments and 14.5% single dwellings. See Figure 1 and Table 1.
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 80 new bed spaces were completed in Q4 2023 and 1,450 in the whole of 2023.
The ESB domestic connections dataset provides information on the type of connection and whether it is in an urban or rural area. The number of completions in urban areas in 2023 was 28,137, a rise of 12.6% from 24,992 in 2022. In rural areas, there was a decrease of 3.7% from 4,734 in 2022 to 4,558 in 2023. In Q4 2023 the number of completions in urban areas was 9,040, rising 16.3% from 7,770 in Q4 2022. In rural areas, there was small decrease of 6.4% from 1,335 in Q4 2022 to 1,249 this quarter. Of all completions in 2023, 86.1% were in urban areas. See Table 2.
Five regions (Dublin, Midlands, West, South-West and South-East) of Ireland saw an increase in new dwelling completions from 2022 to 2023. This relative increase was greatest in the Midlands where there was a 32.3% increase from 1,460 in 2022 to 1,932 in 2023. See Figure 2.
There was over nine thousand (9,081) apartment completions in Dublin in 2023 representing over three quarters (78.0%) of all apartments completed in the year.
Over three in ten (32.0%) of scheme completions in 2023 were in the Mid-East. There were close to a thousand (958) single completions in the West in 2023, with this 17.3% of all single completions nationally in the year.
The most apartment completions by local authority in 2023 were in Dublin City with 3,260. In Q4 2023 this was highest in Dublin City at 1,471. The most scheme completions for the year was in Kildare (2,042) with this highest also just for Q4 (635). Cork County had the highest number of single dwellings for the year (633) and the quarter (161). 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 2023 was in Glencullen-Sandyford (1,255), South-West Inner City Dublin (1,033) followed by Tallaght South (784) and Killiney-Shankill (708). All the top ten Local Electoral Areas with the most completions in 2023 were in Dublin or Kildare. See Figure 3.
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. Data is also available of new dwelling completions by Dwelling Type and Urban Area by year and quarter in tables NDA12 and NDQ10. Urban Area (also known as Built Up Area) is a new geography created for census 2022 which defines urban boundaries as at census 2022. Data has also been updated at a settlement level in the annual table NDA06. Outside of the cities of Dublin, Cork, Galway, and Limerick, Navan was the settlement with the most completions in 2023 with 480, followed by Portlaoise (455) and Drogheda (441). There were 27 settlements - spread across 18 counties - with more than 100 completions in 2023. This was 27 settlements across 16 counties in 2022.
There was a total of 10,886 new domestic ESB connections in Q4 2023 and 35,236 in the whole of 2023. This is an increase of 7.9% on the 10,087 new connections in Q4 2022 and 4.4% up on 33,756 new connections in 2022. The ESB domestic connections series continues to show a comparable trend to the NDC series compiled by the CSO as shown in Figure 4. The number of new dwelling completions as a percentage of total ESB domestic connections was 94.5% this quarter, which is the highest seen since the series began.
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 5 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 here considered to be a reconnection. There were 302 reconnections in Q4 2023, a decrease of 51.3% from 620 in Q4 2022. This fall in reconnections after two years may reflect the impact of disconnection moratoriums applied by energy providers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of previously finished dwellings in unfinished housing developments (UFHDs) is still very low with 45 in Q4 2023. The number of non-dwellings - mostly farm buildings - rose 1.2% from 247 in Q4 2022 to 250 this quarter. UFHDs accounted for just 0.4% of all connections this quarter. In Q3 2014, UFHDs accounted for 24.4% of connections. See Figure 5 and Table 4.
The highest number of reconnections in Q4 2023 was in the Mid-West (56) followed by 48 in the West region. Non-dwellings were highest in the South-West (54) with the West region having the highest number of UFHDs (23). Dublin had the highest proportion of connections being new dwelling completions (98.8%) with the Border region having the lowest (80.0%). See Table 5.
Figure 6 shows that the average new dwelling size is continuing to gradually fall year on year. The average new dwelling size index for 2023 is at 71, under three quarters of the 2016 base index of 100. This decrease is driven by both an increase in the proportion of completed dwellings being apartments and a decrease in the size of single and scheme dwellings. See Table 6. The average new dwelling size index is obtained by linking ESB connections to BER assessment data from the 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 house types, there has been a 2.3% increase in seasonally adjusted completions from 8,468 in Q3 2023 to 8,663 in Q4 2023. For apartment completions there has been a larger increase of 3.6% from 3,292 in Q3 2023 to 3,410 in Q4 2023. There has been a 3.3% increase for scheme dwellings, up to 3,888, with a 3.3% fall for single dwellings, down to 1,366. See Figure 7.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (25 January 2024) released New Dwelling Completions Quarter 4 (Q4) 2023. 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 2023 were 32,695, an increase of 10.0% from 2022. In October, November, and December (Q4) 2023 there were 10,289 completions, a rise of 13.0% from the same quarter in 2022.
Completions by Dwelling Type
From 2022 to 2023, the largest relative increase was in apartments with growth of 28.0% from 9,092 in 2022 to 11,642 in 2023.
The number of scheme dwellings completed also rose by 2.4% to 15,505 in 2023, and there was a growth of 0.9% in single dwellings to 5,548 in 2023. Of all the completions in 2023, 47.4% were scheme dwellings, 35.6% were apartments, and 17.0% were single dwellings. Analysis of the data shows that the proportion of apartments being built has been rising over recent years from 16.4% of completions in 2019 to 35.6% in 2023.
For Q4 2023, there was a 1.5% fall in scheme dwellings completions and a 1.8% decrease in single dwellings completions from Q4 2022, while there was a 46.5% rise in apartments.
Regional Breakdown
Five regions (Dublin, Midlands, West, South-West and South-East) of Ireland saw an increase in new dwelling completions from 2022 to 2023 with the highest growth in the Midlands at 32.3%. In the year, 38.6% of completions were in Dublin with 20.7% in the Mid-East (Kildare, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow).
From Q4 2022 to Q4 2023 the number of new dwelling completions rose in Dublin, the Midlands, the Mid-West, and the South-East, ranging from a 24.4% fall in the Border region to a 78.4% growth in the Midlands.
There were 9,081 apartments completed in Dublin in 2023 representing more than three-quarters (78.0%) of apartment completions nationally. Of all completions in Dublin in 2023, some 71.9% were apartments. More than three in ten (32.0%) of scheme completions were in the Mid-East and 17.3% of single dwellings completed were in the West (Galway City and County, Mayo, and Roscommon).
Glencullen-Sandyford was the Local Electoral Area (LEA) with the most completions in 2023 at 1,255, followed by South-West Inner City Dublin (1,033), and Tallaght South (784)."