THE Central Statistics Office published a report today which showed that the number of successful planning applications granted for apartments fell by a staggering 39% between 2023 and 2024.
The CSO also revealed that approvals for houses was down by 2.7%, whilst the total number of new homes approved fell by 20.6%. This is compared to the increase of 20% which new home approval experienced in 2023.
The statistics come in the wake of an ongoing parliamentary row over the availability of homes to buy and let across the State. The number of housing completions fell to such an extent last year that the Government missed its target.
The picture is even starker when localised to Dublin, where planning permissions for apartments experienced a drop of 46%. The capital also experienced a 46% drop in the number of Strategic Housing Development dwelling units approved.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin O’Broin has called the current Government’s housing policy ‘utterly broken’.
Speaking about the failure of the Government’s affordable housing scheme to meet targets, Mr. O’Broin said: “It’s a scheme to allow people to buy very, very expensive private houses with State equity. It’s been running for three years, and it’s badly missed the target [of 2,000 per year] each year.”
He continued: “There are some affordable purchase schemes up in north county Dublin where, if you want to own the home outright, it’s half a million euros. That’s absolutely insane.
“My view is that [Government housing policy] is utterly broken. The Government has made a complete hames of cost rental, and it needs to urgently go back to the drawing board to fix it. The affordable purchase scheme just needs to be scrapped completely and replaced.”