Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 June 2026
220. Deputy Jen Cummins asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the steps being taken to increase apartment building given that commencements collapsed when the 2024 levy waivers ran out. [44661/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe delivery of new apartments is an essential component of the Government's housing ambitions given the compact growth priority in the National Planning Framework. In 2025, 12,042 new apartments were completed, representing a third of all new dwellings completed and the highest apartment completion figure since the Central Statistic's Office data series began in 2011.
In April 2023, in recognition of the need to incentivise the activation of new housing commencements in the context of increased costs and viability challenges, the Government approved temporary time-limited arrangements for the waiving of local authority “section 48” development contributions and the refunding of Uisce Éireann water and waste water connection charges. Respectively, these measures were in place for commencements from April 2023 to December 2024, and April 2023 to September 2024, where these commencements are completed by December 2026.
These measures resulted in a large amount of apartment commencement notices across 2023 and 2024 with a corresponding impact on 2025. Thus, a multiyear comparison provides a more useful picture of the trend. Across 2024 and 2025 combined, a total of 36,172 commencement notices for apartment units were lodged. This represented an increase of 50% compared with the combined total for 2022 and 2023 (24,127). While 6,274 of those commencement notices across 2024 and 2025 were lodged in 2025, this was not unexpected given the uplift in commencements in 2023 and 2024 and the likely shift in focus in the construction sector to progressing those homes already in the pipeline. Following this timing impact arising from the time limited measures, apartment commencements appear to be returning towards a steady state in recent months.
In Delivering Homes, Building Communities Government has taken decisive action to reduce the overall cost of apartment construction while increasing delivery in our urban areas. Budget 2026 introduced a suite of taxation measures aimed at stimulating the supply of new apartments such as reducing the VAT rate on the sale of new apartments to 9% and introducing an enhanced Corporation Tax deduction for apartment construction costs.
Additionally, funding is available under the Croí Cónaithe Cities Scheme to support the building of apartments for sale to owner-occupiers through a subvention to bridge the gap between the delivery cost and the market sale price.
My Department is also progressing the preparation of a draft National Planning Statement for the Government’s consideration to replace the current apartment guidelines. The overall purpose is to strike an effective regulatory balance, ensuring that apartment development meets the needs of society in terms of standards and quality, while promoting an increased level of overall output.
Sectoral feedback and preliminary data on planning permissions and commencements suggests that the sector is responding positively to the renewed environment for apartment delivery. My Department continues to systematically monitor investment, planning and commencement activity in apartments to examine the pipeline for new apartments and inform ongoing policy consideration in this area.
