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Planning Permissions Quarter 3 2023

Number of dwelling units approved rose by 43% in Quarter 3 2023

Online ISSN: 2009-5279
CSO statistical publication, , 11am
Advisory Note

Users should note that the number of new dwelling units granted planning permission can vary significantly from quarter to quarter if a large development or a number of large developments are approved within the same reference quarter. Users should therefore exercise caution in extrapolating long-term trends on the basis of a single quarter’s data. Additionally, changes to applications processes for Strategic Housing Developments (SHD) and related issues in An Bord Pleanála in 2022 may impact the number of planning permissions granted over recent quarters. Users should also note that the backlog of SHD applications which have been both processed and are still before the Bord awaiting decision, may also impact the number of planning permissions granted over recent quarters.

Key Findings

  • There was an annual increase of more than 43% in the total number of dwelling units approved in Quarter 3 (Q3) 2023 at 9,662 units compared with 6,743 units in Q3 2022, while in Q2 2023 an annual decrease of 23% was recorded.

  • The number of dwelling units granted planning permission in Q3 2023 was almost evenly split between houses (4,859) and apartments (4,803).

  • In Q3 2023, the number of houses granted planning permission rose by more than 10% when compared with Q3 2022, while apartment approvals more than doubled (+105%).

  • For the nine-month period (January to September 2023) there was an overall growth of 13% in the total number of dwelling units approved when compared with the same period in 2022.

  • In Q3 2023 there was an annual fall of more than 25% in the number of one-off houses receiving planning permission, compared with an annual decline of 36% in Q2 2023.

  • There was an annual rise of 32% in multi-development houses receiving planning permission in Q3 2023 compared with an annual decrease of 6% in Q2 2023.

  • Across the four local authorities of Dublin, planning permission was granted for 3,077 apartments in Q3 2023, accounting for almost two-thirds (64%) of all apartments granted planning permission in the state this quarter.

  • More than one in four (28%) of all dwelling units granted planning permission in the state in Q3 2023 were in the Dublin City Council local authority area, with 2,270 apartment units and 394 houses.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (07 December 2023) released Planning Permissions for Quarter 3 (Q3) 2023.

Commenting on the release, Shane O'Sullivan, Statistician in the Business Statistics Division, said: “The number of units granted planning permission in Q3 (July, August, and September) 2023 was 9,662, of which, 4,859 were for houses and 4,803 were for apartments. The number of apartments approved more than doubled (+105%) when compared with Q3 2022. The number of houses approved in Q3 2023 rose by more than 10% over the same period. There was a total annual increase of 43% in the number of dwelling unit approvals in Q3 2023, following an annual decline of 23% in the previous quarter. 

Planning Permissions by Type of Dwelling

Planning permission was granted for 3,077 apartments in Dublin in Q3 2023, accounting for almost two-thirds (64%) of all apartments granted planning approval in the state. There were 2,664 dwelling units approved in the Dublin City Council local authority area (2,270 apartments and 394 houses), accounting for more than a quarter (28%) of all dwelling units granted planning permission in Q3 2023. During the same period, the Border Region (Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, and Monaghan) recorded the lowest number of apartment units (84) granted planning permission.

Of the 6,830 individual applications for planning permissions granted in Q3 2023, there were 1,585 for new construction dwellings, 2,097 for other new constructions, 1,918 for extensions, and 1,230 permissions were for alterations and conversions."

Headline Table

The headline table shows the total number of dwelling units (Houses and Apartments) granted planning permission in Quarter 3 (Q3) of 2022 and 2023. It also highlights the annual percentage changes.

Dwelling units granted planning permission in Quarter 3 of 2022 and 2023
 HousesApartmentsTotal
Quarter 3 20224,3962,3476,743
Quarter 3 20234,8594,8039,662
Annual % change10.5%104.6%43.3%

Dwelling units granted planning permission

In the third quarter (Q3) of 2023 there were 4,803 apartments granted planning permission. During the same period, 3,632 multi-development houses and 1,227 one-off houses were approved.

Figure 1: Number of dwelling units granted planning permission by type, Q3 2021 - Q3 2023
Table 1 Summary of planning permissions granted for new houses and apartments, Q1 2018 - Q3 2023

Houses accounted for 50.3% of all new dwelling units granted planning permission in Q3 2023 with 4,859 units approved. There were 4,803 apartments granted planning permission in Quarter 3 of 2023. This was in contrast to the previous quarter (Q2 2023), when more apartments than houses had been granted planning permission.

Figure 2: Number of dwelling units granted planning permission, Q1 2006 - Q3 2023
Table 2a Summary of new dwelling units granted planning permission, Q1 2018 - Q3 2023

Table 2b Year to date aggregates of new dwelling units granted planning permission, Q1 2018 - Q3 2023

Planning permission applications granted by type of construction

In total, there were 6,830 applications for planning permissions granted for all developments in Q3 2023. Applications may relate to a single dwelling or a number of dwellings in the case of multi-unit development applications. Of these applications granted permission, 1,585 were for new construction dwellings, 2,097 for other new constructions, 1,918 for extensions, and 1,230 permissions were for alterations and conversions.

Of the 1,585 new construction dwellings granted planning permission, 1,227 were one-off houses, 202 were apartments, 146 were multi-development houses, and ten were communal dwellings.

For long labels below use
to display on multiple lines
Status
New
construction
dwellings
1585
New
construction
other
2097
Extensions1918
Alterations and
conversions
1230
For long labels below use
to display on multiple lines
Status
Multi-development
houses
146
One-off houses1227
Apartments202
Communal
dwellings
10
Table 3a Summary of planning permissions granted, Q3 2023, classified by region, county and type of development

Table 3b Summary of planning permissions granted for new houses, apartments and communal dwellings, Q1 2018 - Q3 2023

An annual increase of 1.3% has been recorded in the number of planning permissions granted for all developments, with 6,743 permissions approved in Q3 2022 compared with 6,830 permissions approved in the current quarter. During the same period an annual decrease of 17.9% was recorded in the number of planning permissions granted for new construction dwellings. There were annual increases in approvals for other new constructions (+15.6%) and alterations and conversions (+14.2%), while there was a slight decrease in approvals for extensions (-0.2%).

Figure 3c: Planning permissions granted by type of construction, Q3 2021 - Q3 2023
Table 3c Summary of planning permissions granted, Q1 2018 - Q3 2023

Planning permissions granted by type of development and functional category

There were 6,830 planning permissions granted for all functional categories in Q3 2023. Dwelling units accounted for 60.6% (4,140) of all permissions granted. Of these 4,140 permissions granted, 1,585 were for new constructions, 1,690 were for extensions, and 865 were for alterations and conversions.

Figure 4: Planning permissions granted for all types of construction by functional category, Q3 2023
Table 4a Planning permissions granted, Q3 2023, classified by region, type of development and functional category

Table 4b Total floor area planned (000 square metres) in new construction and extensions, Q3 2023, classified by region and functional category

Apartment units granted planning permission

There were 4,803 new apartments granted planning permission in Q3 2023.

Dublin had the highest proportion of new apartments approved with 64.1% (3,077) of all apartments granted planning permission in the state, followed by the Mid-East region with 9.5% (455 apartments) and the Mid-West region with 7.8% (375 apartments). The Eastern and Midland region (Dublin, Mid-East, and Midlands) accounted for 3,810 new apartments, 79.3% of the overall total granted planning permission. The Southern region (Mid-West, South-East, and South-West) accounted for 16.4% (788) of apartment approvals with the Northern and Western region (Border and West) accounting for the remaining 4.3% (205 apartments).

Figure 5a: New apartment units granted planning permission by region, Q3 2023

Within the county of Dublin, Dublin City Council accounted for 47.3% (2,270) and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council accounted for 9.1% (438) of the total number of apartment units granted planning permission in the state in Q3 2023. Outside of Dublin, the highest numbers of apartments granted planning permissions were in counties Limerick (290 apartments), Meath (253 apartments), and Cork (242 apartments). Counties Leitrim, Offaly, and Roscommon did not grant any planning permissions for apartments during the current quarter.

Figure 5b: New apartment units granted planning permission by county, Q3 2023
Table 5a Apartment units granted planning permission by region, Q1 2020 - Q3 2023

House units granted planning permission

There were 4,859 new houses granted planning permission in Q3 2023.

The Mid-East region had the highest proportion of new houses approved with 20.2% (980) of all houses granted planning permission in the state. This was followed by the Dublin region with 17.7% (861) of house approvals and the South-East region with 12.8% (620 houses). The Eastern and Midland region (Dublin, Mid-East, and Midlands) accounted for 2,402 new houses, 49.4% of the total number of new houses granted planning permission. The Southern region (Mid-West, South-East, and South-West) accounted for 36.2% (1,757) of house approvals with the Northern and Western region (Border and West) accounting for the remaining 14.4% (700 houses).

Figure 5c: New house units granted planning permission by region, Q3 2023

Dublin had the highest proportion of houses granted planning permission at 17.7% (861 houses) in the state in Q3 2023. Cork had the second highest number of houses granted planning permission at 11.5% (558 houses), followed by Meath at 8.5% (412 houses), Westmeath at 8.0% (391 houses), and Louth at 7.8% (380 houses). Leitrim with twelve houses had the lowest proportion of houses granted planning permission, followed by Roscommon (20 houses) and Waterford (29 houses).

Figure 5d: New house units granted planning permission by county, Q3 2023
Table 5b Dwelling units granted planning permission by county, Q3 2023

Dwelling units granted by type of application – Strategic Housing Development (SHD) and non-SHD applications

The Strategic Housing Development (SHD) process is where applications of at least 100 residential units or 200+ student bed spaces can be made directly to An Bord Pleanála.

In comparison with Q3 2022, there was an annual increase of 91.5% (1,844 to 3,531) in the total number of SHD dwelling units approved. There was an annual increase of 99.7% in the number of houses approved under the SHD process, compared with a rise of 87.3% in the number of SHD apartments approved. In Q3 2023, 36.5% of all planning permissions (2,287 apartments and 1,244 houses) were granted under the SHD process. Apartments accounted for 64.8% of all successful SHD applications. Of the 4,859 houses granted planning permission, 25.6% (1,244) were granted under the SHD process.

Please note: The Strategic Housing Development (SHD) process expired to new applications on 25 February 2022. It has been succeeded by the Large-Scale Residential Development (LRD) scheme. Please see Background Notes.

X-axis labelNon-Strategic Housing Development unitsStrategic Housing Development units
2022 Q3 - Apartment units11261221
2022 Q3 - Multi-development house units2126623
2022 Q4 - Apartment units10082750
2022 Q4 - Multi-development house units1843640
2023 Q1 - Apartment units18103703
2023 Q1 - Multi-development house units28211905
2023 Q2 - Apartment units21932828
2023 Q2 - Multi-development house units14151115
2023 Q3 - Apartment units25162287
2023 Q3 - Multi-development house units23881244
Table 6 Apartment, multi-development and one-off house units granted planning permission by type of application, Q1 2018 - Q3 2023

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