Housing Schemes

Tuesday, 14 October 2025

Ceisteanna (634)

Peadar Tóibín

Ceist:

634. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the average construction costs incurred by local authorities, per house, in the construction of social houses. [55234/25]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage

My Department assesses, approves and records local authority social housing delivery on a project basis, rather than on the basis of individual unit types.

As Social Housing Investment Programme funded construction projects by local authorities must, like all publicly-funded construction programmes, comply with the Infrastructure Guidelines (Public Spending Code) and Capital Works Management Framework, my Department periodically issues Basic Unit Costs (BUCs) for each local authority area, for use as a key benchmark for the development and costing of scheme designs at capital appraisal stage. While not a record of actual delivery costs, BUCs are based on an analysis of returned data from tendered social housing schemes over an extended period and updated based on published tender index information as required.

To monitor tender cost trends and to inform BUC levels, my Department analyses the tender data for the construction cost element of new build schemes approved under the SHIP & CAS four stage approval processes for each unit type, where sufficient information is available to allow such costs to be extrapolated and where the information available is appropriate for comparison purposes.

Outlined in the table below are average construction costs per unit (incl. VAT), for each Local Authority, recorded as part of the aforementioned analysis for projects tendered in the years 2023, 2024 & 2025 (to July).

The table also sets out the range of average unit costs (across different projects) for each local authority. The range of costs recorded vary, depending on design, mix of unit types (e.g. bedroom numbers, apartment/house); and on the level of abnormal requirements for each scheme, for instance existing site conditions, demolitions, service diversions, site access requirements. Average abnormal costs are also separately identified in the below tables.

2023 – July 2025		Construction Costs (incl. abnormals)	Abnormal Costs
Local Authority	Average Cost Per Unit €	Range of Costs Per Unit €	Average Cost Per Unit €
Carlow	215,423	215k - 215k	10,289
Cavan	253,368	192k - 294k	31,728
Clare	275,980	257k - 306k	36,332
Cork City	381,400	240k - 420k	29,488
Cork County	280,978	165k - 372k	31,544
Donegal	268,900	236k - 329k	35,058
Dublin City	448,900	449k - 449k	31,025
Fingal	312,632	271k - 324k	32,599
South Dublin	385,666	350k - 437k	22,609
DLR	351,136	252k - 376k	29,569
Galway City	341,589	226k - 355k	26,822
Galway County	259,328	232k - 272k	32,527
Kerry	345,203	231k - 368k	52,672
Kildare	371,346	371k - 371k	62,131
Kilkenny	269,848	260k - 293k	35,815
Laois	290,221	228k - 344k	32,632
Leitrim	182,663	183k - 183k	2,614
Limerick	302,932	196k - 361k	48,445
Longford	275,711	246k - 285k	28,849
Louth	329,426	303k - 368k	58,079
Mayo	317,117	262k - 414k	57,051
Meath	303,255	222k - 374k	40,589
Monaghan	307,044	291k - 342k	21,515
Offaly	283,215	283k - 283k	45,664
Roscommon	237,273	211k - 277k	10,970
Sligo	291,804	256k - 332k	33,087
Tipperary	275,893	219k - 287k	42,960
Waterford	276,252	221k - 298k	53,735
Westmeath	269,855	250k - 460k	29,576
Wexford	322,640	262k - 359k	43,407
Wicklow	328,923	170k - 387k	44,152

The costs in the above table relate to the construction element only of the all-in delivery cost. Other items that make up the all-in total include:

• Design/technical fees: Design fees vary from project to project, depending on the location, size and complexity of a scheme (and depending on whether design services are provided by a local authority in-house or via external appointment). As a guideline/indicator, design fees are generally expected to range between 7.5% to 12.5% of construction costs.

• Land cost: Land costs will vary significantly from project to project, depending on location and ownership status (i.e. land costs could vary from existing local authority land at no cost to land purchased at market value).

• Utilities: Connection fees for Irish Water, ESB, gas, etc. As a guideline/indicator, utility connection costs are generally in the order of €7k per unit.

• Other Costs: Other items that make up the all-in delivery cost can include site investigations/surveys, archaeological requirements, Percent for Art contributions - and will vary from scheme to scheme.