Construction of residential units is up more than 50% on last year, a new survey shows.
According to Ireland’s address database GeoDirectory, more than 14,000 residential buildings were under construction in June 2019, up 52.8% on the same period last year.
The majority of the construction was located in the greater Dublin area while construction activity was weakest in Connacht and Ulster.
The residential buildings report, prepared by EY-DKM Economic Advisory on behalf of GeoDirectory, also found the average house price nationally in the 12 months to April was €289,146.
When Dublin was excluded, the average house price fell to €214,679.
Only three counties recorded prices higher than the national average. These were Dublin (€432,327), Wicklow (€341,217) and Kildare (€297,356), while Meath, Cork, Kilkenny, Galway and Louth were the only other counties to record average prices over €200,000.
The county with the lowest average property price was Longford at €115,330, followed by neighbouring counties Leitrim (€116,468) and Donegal (€122,953).
In total, there were 2,009,809 residential dwellings in the state in June 2019. A third of these dwellings were detached, terraced dwellings accounted for 27% of the properties, while semi-detached dwellings accounted for 25%.
There were 184,535 apartments in the country, representing 9.2% of the total stock. Almost two thirds of all apartments are located in Dublin.
The national vacancy rate remains unchanged from the previous buildings report last December at 4.8%, with the highest vacancy rates occurring on the north-west coast.
GeoDirectory chief executive Dara Keogh said: “The construction industry is rising to the challenge of demand for housing, but it is clear that there is still some way to go to reach the required level of supply.
“Construction activity levels are almost four times higher than this stage in 2015 and this is reflected in the number of new property purchases.
"One in five houses bought in the last 12 months was new, and in commuter counties such as Meath, Kildare and Wicklow, this proportion was much higher.”
Annette Hughes, director of EY-DKM Economic Advisory Services, said: “It’s encouraging to see that Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area are benefiting from increased construction activity since our last report, having felt the strain of a lack of supply in recent years.
“However, with such low levels of construction activity outside of Leinster, this analysis shows that more still needs to be done to encourage more balanced regional development so as to attract talent to areas outside of the capital and achieve the ambitious objectives set out in the National Development Plan.”
