Nearly 30,000 new homes were completed in Ireland last year, a yearly increase of 45 percent, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
In 2022, 29,851 residential units were completed. This number includes 9,148 houses that were constructed in the final three months of the year.
9,166 apartments were finished in 2022, an increase of nearly 80% from 2021’s total.
Over 10,000 of the dwellings completed last year were part of a housing scheme, defined by the CSO as a “multi-unit development of two or more houses connected to the ESB network”.
4,736 one-off dwellings built were constructed, none of which were apartments or parts of developments.
There has been a 41% increase in the number of homes built this year compared to pre-pandemic levels.
A yearly increase in completion of at least 20% was observed in every region of the nation. The Dublin area experienced a yearly increase of 65%.
Additionally, Dublin saw the greatest number of completed homes: 34% of all housing units built in the nation were in the capital.
In spite of these numbers, the State fell short of its housing goals last year, the Taoiseach acknowledged on Wednesday.
Leo Varadkar also pointed out that 2022 was the only year in recorded history with more social homes built than any other.
During Leaders’ Questions on Wednesday, Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy asked: “What is the point in your modest housing targets when you keep missing them?”
Mr. Varadkar admitted the Government had missed its target to build 9,000 social homes in 2022.
“In relation to the social housing target, you’re correct. We did miss the social housing target last year: 6,500 new social homes were provided,” he said.
“What you should have acknowledged in your question is that that was still the highest number of new social homes provided in Ireland for a very long time,” he said.
Mr. Varadkar also denied that the State had an over reliance on the private sector to drive the housing supply.