The number of homes being built in Dublin is falling, despite a growing recovery in residential construction across the country, new figures show.
About 20,000 homes need to be built every year, including more than 8,000 in the Dublin region, according to the Government's Housing Agency.
However, housing completion figures from the Department of the Environment for the first nine months of this year show fewer new homes were built across Dublin city and county than in the same period last year, down to 2,057 from 2,403.
Across the State, while housing numbers are still lagging far behind what is needed, they have increased this year with 8,914 homes completed, compared to 7,789 up to the end of September last year.
In 2006, the height of the construction boom, 66,470 homes were built in the first nine months of year, 14,375 of which were in Dublin city and county.
The drop in the number of homes completed this year in Dublin is down to a particularly poor performance in two local authority areas – Dublin city and South Dublin.
South Dublin down
In Dublin city, which the Housing Agency says has the greatest need for new homes, just 494 houses and apartments were completed up to the end of September, more than one third fewer than in the same period last year.
South Dublin saw an ever steeper decline, a drop of 60 per cent from 582 homes built down to just 231 in nine months.
Fingal fared considerably better, pulling up the Dublin average with 833 homes built, up from 561 to September last year, while the number remained stable in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown area, with 504 homes completed in the first nine months of the year, up 499 compared with the same period in 2014.
Warning
The figures coincide with the publication of a report commissioned by the four Dublin local authorities warning that construction rates in Dublin so far this year are “too weak” to meet the capital’s growing population.
The Dublin Economic Monitor third quarterly report said the strengthening economy, particularly in the capital, was putting pressure on accommodation supplies which wasn't being met by construction levels.
"Dublin residential rents likewise continue their relentless progress back towards the peak, and house prices also appear to be growing again as housing completions in the Dublin region remain weak," according to the report by DKM Economic Consultants.
The problem was intensified by recent growth in the capital’s population, the report said.
Dublin’s population did not grow at the same pace as the national population during the boom, and there was no reversal of that pattern during the crash. However recently the population of Dublin has increased.
“An interesting phenomenon has arisen in the last couple of years, however: while the population of the rest of Ireland stagnated, Dublin’s population has grown strongly.”
In particular, the number of residents in their 30s, those most likely to be seeking to buy new homes, grew in Dublin but fell in the rest of Ireland, according to the report.
“Supply to the market is urgently needed as Dublin’s growing population has placed added pressure on the existing stock.”
