New home completions totalled 20,676 last year, considerably more than had been forecast at the height of the first lockdown when the majority of building sites were forced to close.
The headline number, published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), was boosted by a surge in apartment completions in the final quarter of 2020.
Overall, it was 1.9 per cent down on the 21,087 units constructed in 2019.
It also lags the estimated level of the demand in the market, which the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) believes is about 28,000.
The CSO said a “late year surge in completions brings 2020 close to 2019 levels”.
The figures show there were 7,400 new home completions in the final quarter, up 15.9 per cent on the 6,387 units completed in the same period in 2019.
“The level of completions in Q4 shows a recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated restrictions, which particularly affected completions in Q2 and Q3,” the CSO said.
In the final quarter, the biggest growth area was for apartments. The number of apartments completed rose by 45.6 per cent from 1,184 in the final quarter of 2019 to 1,724 in the final three months of last year.
Despite Covid-19, there was still an increase for apartments for the whole of 2020 – by 14.5 per cent to 4,014 from the 3,507 completions in 2019 – the CSO said.
The number of homes built in estates rose from 3,810 in the final quarter of 2019 to 4,164 in the same period last year, an increase of 9.3 per cent. This took the total scheme completions in 2020 to 11,725 but the total was still down 6.3 per cent on the previous year.
One-off homes also increased by 8.5 per cent in the final quarter and by 2.6 per cent to 5,067 for the year as a whole.
The figures show scheme dwellings made up 56.3 per cent of all new dwelling completions in the final quarter, while 23.3 per cent were apartments and 20.4 per cent were single dwellings.
The CSO noted this was the first quarter since the series began in 2011 that has seen more apartments than single dwellings completed.
Fall in starts
Goodbody economist Dermot O’Leary said: “Quite remarkably, completions for 2020 were only down 2 per cent year on year, despite having fallen 33 per cent year on year in Q2. The fall in starts, however, has been more notable, suggesting lingering impacts into this year,” he said.
Trevor Grant, chairman of the Association of Irish Mortgage Advisors (AIMA), said despite the late surge in completions, the 2020 total was still slightly lower than 2019, “and in an already squeezed property market, where demand has consistently exceeded supply, the lack of supply of suitable properties will continue [to] be an issue in 2021 and will impact those looking for a home this year”.
“Reports from our members reveal that the pace of activity for mortgage approvals in recent months has demonstrated that there is certainly no shortage of qualified borrowers seeking to purchase homes,” he said.
