House building steps up post pandemic across the country

Construction of over 2,000 new residential homes is expected to begin in the coming weeks, latest figures show.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has published commencement notices data for February 2022.

Commencement notices for 2,237 new residential homes were received by Building Control Authorities in February 2022. Data for commencement notices indicates the number of homes on which construction commenced in any given month.

A commencement notice is a notification to a Building Control Authority that a person intends to carry out either works or a Material Change of Use to which the Building Regulations apply.

The notice must be given to the authority not more than 28 days and not less than 14 days before the commencement of works or the change of use. Once validated by the building control authority, works must commence on site within the 28 day period.

There is also a significant increase in the amount of homes being built in the country in comparison to previous years. 

In the past twelve months (March 2021 to February 2022), commencement notices for 33,006 new homes were received.

This is the highest rolling 12-month total since comparable data were first published. 

With the exception of 2020, when significant restrictions on home-building existed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of residential homes for which commencement notices were received has increased every year since 2015 (the earliest year for which comparable data is available).  

The total number of homes for which commencement notices were received in February 2022 (2,237 units) is 20% higher than January 2022 (1,861 units).

The figures is 345% higher than February 2021 (although it should be noted that there were restrictions on construction activity in place in February 2021 for public health reasons). 

The 12-month rolling periods relate to March to February for the years in question.