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Planning Permissions Quarter 3 2024

Number of dwelling units granted planning permission down 10.9% in Quarter 3 2024

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 An Bord Pleanála awaiting decision, may also impact the number of planning permissions granted over recent quarters.

Key Findings

  • There was an annual decrease of 10.9% in the total number of dwelling units approved in Quarter 3 (Q3) 2024 to 8,611 units, down from 9,662 units in Q3 2023.

  • Houses accounted for 61% of all dwelling units granted planning permission in Q3 2024, while apartments made up the remaining 39%.

  • In Q3 2024, the number of houses granted planning permission rose by 9% when compared with Q3 2023, while in contrast, apartment approvals fell by 31%.

  • The number of multi-development houses receiving planning permission grew by 13% annually, from 3,632 units in Q3 2023 to 4,101 units in Q3 2024.

  • There was an annual decrease of 3% in the number of one-off houses receiving planning permission in Q3 2024 compared with an annual increase of 2% in Q2 2024.

  • Across the four local authorities of Dublin, there was an annual decline of 46% in the total number of dwelling units approved in Q3 2024, of which the number of houses approved was down by 4%, compared with a fall of 58% in the number of apartments approved.

  • In Q3 2024, there was an annual increase of 1.1% (3,531 to 3,569) in the total number of Strategic Housing Developments (SHD) dwelling units approved, of which the number of houses approved rose by 50%, compared with a fall of 26% in the number of apartments approved.

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (17 December 2024) published Planning Permissions for Quarter 3 (Q3) 2024.

Commenting on the release, Shane O'Sullivan, Statistician in the Enterprise Statistics Division, said: “The number of units granted planning permission in June, July, and August (Q3) 2024 was 8,611, of which, 5,293 were for houses and 3,318 were for apartments. The number of apartments approved decreased by almost a third (-31%) when compared with Q3 2023. The number of houses approved in Q3 2024 rose by 9% over the same period. There was an annual decline of 11% in the total number of dwelling unit approvals in Q3 2024, following an annual fall of 2% in the previous quarter.

Planning Permissions by Type of Dwelling

Planning permission was granted for 1,293 apartments in Dublin in Q3 2024, accounting for almost two-fifths (39%) of all apartments granted planning approval in the state. There were 2,117 dwelling units approved in Dublin (1,293 apartments and 824 houses), which made up almost a quarter (24.6%) of all dwelling units granted planning permission in Q3 2024. During the same period, the West Region (Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon) recorded the lowest number of apartment units (74) granted planning permission.

Of the 6,693 individual applications for planning permissions granted in Q3 2024, there were 1,566 for new construction dwellings, 1,930 for other new constructions, 2,089 for extensions, and 1,108 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 2023 and 2024. It also highlights the annual percentage changes.

Dwelling units granted planning permission in Quarter 3 of 2023 and 2024
 Quarter 3
 20232024Change
Multi-development houses3,6324,10146912.9%
One-off houses1,2271,192-35-2.9%
All Houses4,8595,2934348.9%
Apartments4,8033,318-1,485-30.9%
Total Dwellings9,6628,611-1,051-10.9%

Dwelling units granted planning permission

In the third quarter (Q3) of 2024 there were 3,318 apartments granted planning permission. During the same period, 4,101 multi-development houses and 1,192 one-off houses were approved.

Figure 1: Number of dwelling units granted planning permission by type, Q3 2022 - Q3 2024
Table 1 Number of planning permissions granted for new houses and apartments, Q1 2018 - Q3 2024

Houses accounted for 61% of all new dwelling units granted planning permission in Q3 2024 with 5,293 units approved. There were 3,318 apartments granted planning permission in Quarter 3 of 2024. This was in contrast to Q3 2023, when a similar number of apartments and houses were granted planning permission.

Figure 2: Number of dwelling units granted planning permission, Q1 2006 - Q3 2024
Table 2a Number of new dwelling units granted planning permission, Q1 2018 - Q3 2024

Table 2b Year to date aggregates of new dwelling units granted planning permission, Q1 2018 - Q3 2024

Planning permission applications granted by type of construction

In total, there were 6,693 applications for planning permissions granted for all developments in Q3 2024. 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, 1,566 were for new construction dwellings, 1,930 for other new constructions, 2,089 for extensions, and 1,108 permissions were for alterations and conversions.

Of the 1,566 new construction dwellings granted planning permission, 1,192 were one-off houses, 212 were apartments, 153 were multi-development houses, and nine were communal dwellings.

For long labels below use
to display on multiple lines
Status
New
construction
dwellings
1566
New construction
other
1930
Extensions2089
Alterations and
conversions
1108
For long labels below use
to display on multiple lines
Status
Multi-development
houses
153
One-off
houses
1192
Apartments212
Communal
dwellings
9
Table 3a Number of planning permissions granted, Q3 2024, classified by region, county and type of development

Table 3b Number of planning permissions granted for new houses, apartments and communal dwellings, Q1 2018 - Q3 2024

An annual decrease of 2.0% has been recorded in the number of planning permissions granted for all developments, with 6,830 permissions approved in Q3 2023 compared with 6,693 permissions approved in the current quarter. During the same period an annual decrease of 1.2% was recorded in the number of planning permissions granted for new construction dwellings. There were also annual decreases in approvals for other new constructions (-8.0%) and alterations and conversions (-9.9%). In contrast, extensions showed an annual increase of 8.9%.

Figure 3c: Planning permissions granted by type of construction, Q3 2022 - Q3 2024
Table 3c Number of planning permissions granted, Q1 2018 - Q3 2024

Planning permissions granted by type of development and functional category

There were 6,693 planning permissions granted for all functional categories in Q3 2024. Dwelling units accounted for 62.6% (4,192) of all permissions granted. Of these 4,192 permissions granted, 1,566 were for new constructions, 1,825 were for extensions, and 801 were for alterations and conversions.

Figure 4: Planning permissions granted for all types of construction by functional category, Q3 2024
Table 4a Planning permissions granted, Q3 2024, classified by region, type of development and functional category

Table 4b Total floor area planned (000 square metres) in new construction and extensions, Q3 2024, classified by region and functional category

Apartment units granted planning permission

There were 3,318 new apartments granted planning permission in Q3 2024.

Dublin had the highest proportion of new apartments approved with 39.0% (1,293) of all apartments granted planning permission in the state, followed by the South-West region with 23.5% (779 apartments) and the Mid-East region with 15.8% (523 apartments). The Eastern and Midland region (Dublin, Mid-East, and Midlands) accounted for 1,918 new apartments, 57.8% of the overall total granted planning permission. The Southern region (Mid-West, South-East, and South-West) accounted for 37.1% (1,232) of apartment approvals, with the Northern and Western region (Border and West) accounting for the remaining 5.1% (168 apartments).

Map 1a: New apartment units granted planning permission by region, Q3 2024

Within the county of Dublin, Fingal County Council accounted for 14.1% (467) and Dublin City Council accounted for 14.0% (465) of the total number of apartment units granted planning permission in the state in Q3 2024. Outside of Dublin, the highest numbers of apartments granted planning permissions were in counties Cork (706 apartments), Limerick (297 apartments), and Wicklow (255 apartments). County Longford did not grant any planning permissions for apartments during the current quarter.

Map 1b: New apartment units granted planning permission by county, Q3 2024
Table 5a Apartment units granted planning permission by region, Q1 2020 - Q3 2024

House units granted planning permission

There were 5,293 new houses granted planning permission in Q3 2024.

The South-West region had the highest proportion of new houses approved with 23.9% (1,267) of all houses granted planning permission in the state. This was followed by the Dublin region with 15.6% (824) of house approvals and the Mid-East region with 14.2% (753 houses). The Eastern and Midland region (Dublin, Mid-East, and Midlands) accounted for 2,092 new houses, 39.5% of the total number of new houses granted planning permission. The Southern region (Mid-West, South-East, and South-West) accounted for 43.1% (2,279) of house approvals with the Northern and Western region (Border and West) accounting for the remaining 17.4% (922 houses).

Map 1c: New house units granted planning permission by region, Q3 2024

Cork county had the highest proportion of houses granted planning permission at 20.7% (1,095 houses) in the state in Q3 2024. Dublin county had the second highest number of houses granted planning permission at 15.6% (824 houses), followed by Kildare at 6.6% (349 houses) and Westmeath at 6.1% (322 houses). Carlow with sixteen houses had the lowest proportion of houses granted planning permission, followed by Leitrim (22 houses) and Longford (35 houses).

Map 1d: New house units granted planning permission by county, Q3 2024
Table 5b Dwelling units granted planning permission by county, Q3 2024

Table 5c House units granted planning permission by region, Q1 2020 - Q3 2024

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 2023, there was an annual increase of 1.1% (3,531 to 3,569) in the total number of SHD dwelling units approved. There was an annual rise of 50.4% in the number of houses approved under the SHD process, in contrast to a fall of 25.8% in the number of SHD apartments approved. In Q3 2024, 41.4% of all planning permissions (1,698 apartments and 1,871 houses) were granted under the SHD process. Apartments accounted for 47.6% of all successful SHD applications. Of the 5,293 houses granted planning permission, 35.3% (1,871) 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
2023 Q3 - Apartment units25162287
2023 Q3 - Multi-development house units23881244
2023 Q4 - Apartment units12964854
2023 Q4 - Multi-development house units25821236
2024 Q1 - Apartment units20531435
2024 Q1 - Multi-development house units2658953
2024 Q2 - Apartment units22051261
2024 Q2 - Multi-development house units26951157
2024 Q3 - Apartment units16201698
2024 Q3 - Multi-development house units22301871
Table 6 Apartment, multi-development and one-off house units granted planning permission by type of application, Q1 2018 - Q3 2024

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