Nearly 30,000 new homes were completed in Ireland last year, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien praised the news, saying that it was the “highest annual housing supply in over a decade” and that the Government’s Housing for All target for 2022 had been reached.
However, the figures were published just a day after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil that the Government had missed its 2022 social housing target.
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The CSO figures show that there were 29,851 new dwelling completions in the whole of 2022, an increase of 45.2% from 2021 and 41.3% up from 2019. The Government’s overall housing target for the year was 24,600.
In October, November and December (quarter four) of 2022 there were 9,148 completions, a rise of 31.4% compared to the same period the previous year.
Some 9,166 apartments were completed in 2022, up 78.7% on 2021.
Nearly 60% of housing completions in the final quarter of 2022 were in Dublin, Kildare, Louth Meath or Wicklow.
The highest level of completions in 2022 was in the Killiney-Shankill area of south county Dublin.
A spokesperson for the Department of Housing said that the 2022 figures are the highest annual output since CSO data began in 2011.
Minister O’Brien said that the figures show that the Government is “going in the right direction”.
He said: “The Government has met and exceeded its overall housing target for the first year of Housing for All and it is encouraging to see the highest level of housing delivery in over a decade despite unforeseen challenges like high construction cost inflation due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Increasing supply is central to ensuring people can access affordable housing and that our housing market functions more effectively.
“Whilst today’s news is positive, the Government recognises that we need to continue ramping up supply and to meet even higher targets.”
The Housing for All target for 2023 is 29,000 new dwellings.
While the CSO figures show that the Government’s overall targets were met for 2022, the Taoiseach conceded in the Dáil on Wednesday that social housing targets had been met.
He confirmed to Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy that 6,500 social homes were delivered. This is below the 9,000 target.
Mr Varadkar said: “The Deputy is correct that we missed [the social housing target]last year.
"Some 6,500 new social homes were provided. What the Deputy did not acknowledge - she should have done so, frankly, to be fair - in her question is that was still the highest number of new social homes provided in Ireland for a very long time. We do not know how long. It might have been the highest since the foundation of the State.
“We are not happy with it either. We want it to be much higher this year - closer to 9,000 or 10,000. That is our objective.”
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