1.
How Many Net New
Residential Units Are
Really Available In
Ireland?
Notes on Recently Published CSO New
Dwellings Completed Numbers and a Wider
Review of Demographic Factors
Alan McSweeney
June 2018
http://ie.linkedin.com/in/alanmcsweeney

2.
How Many Net New Residential Units Are Really Available?
Page 2
Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 3
What Needs To Be Measured? ............................................................................................................... 3
Number Of New Dwellings And Census Data......................................................................................... 9
Summary............................................................................................................................................. 12

3.
How Many Net New Residential Units Are Really Available?
Page 3
Introduction
The CSO announced in June 20181 that they are publishing a new set of data series called New Dwellings
Completed2. The purpose of this new data is to create realistic statistics on the number of new dwelling
completions in Ireland.
The previous estimates were based on new connections to the electricity network. It was widely
acknowledged that this overestimated the number of new residential dwellings being built. It also did
not include commercial premises that were converted to residential use.
The purpose of this note is to examine this new data in the context of estimating the new number of
newly available residential dwellings needed to accommodate demand caused by demographic changes.
What Needs To Be Measured?
The first issue to be considered is what are the policy questions that need to be (asked and) answered and
what information is needed to provide answers?
The objective should be to understand the demand for residential accommodation – both purchase and
rental in the context of demand.
Counting the number of newly built residential dwellings is just one aspect of understanding the state of
the residential property stock.
A more complete analysis requires taking data from a wider range of sources to create a more informed
view of the state of residential property in Ireland.
Schematically, the sequence and flow of key sets of measures of property-related activities is:
1https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-ndc/newdwellingcompletionsq12018/overview/
2https://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Database/eirestat/New%20Dwelling%20Completions/New%20Dwelling%20Com
pletions_statbank.asp

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How Many Net New Residential Units Are Really Available?
Page 4
These activities are:
1. Planning Permissions for New Residential Units – planning permissions are granted for new
residential units.
2. Commercial Units Converted to Residential Units - planning permissions are granted for the
conversion of existing commercial premises to residential use.
3. Unoccupied, Unfinished or Derelict Properties Reinstated to Residential Use Not Needing Planning
Permission – previously occupied or derelict or unfinished residential buildings are brought back into
use.
4. Planning Permissions Not Proceeded With – some planning permissions will not be proceeded with.
5. Planning Permissions for Student Accommodation – some planning permissions will be for student
accommodation and so will not be for general long-term residential use, either owner-occupied or
rented
6. Reduction in the Number of Rental Units – the number of residential rental units can be reduced.
This specifically refers to changes such as the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations
20083 where so-called pre-63 rental units which were exempt from certain planning regulations were
brought into the scope. These conditions came into operation on 1 February 2013. This impact of
this was the number of rental units that could be accommodated in a property was reduced.
7. Once Off Units Not For Sale – once-off residential units, while adding to the overall residential
dwelling stock, are generally, though not exclusively, built by individuals who are moving from
existing accommodation.
8. Existing Residential Units Lost – some of the existing residential stock will be lost through fire,
dereliction, demolition to, for example, create space for new residential building.
3 S.I. No. 534/2008 http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2008/si/534/made/en/print

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How Many Net New Residential Units Are Really Available?
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9. Rental Units Converted to Residential – this happens when, for example, some rental units (such as
those that were classified as pre-63 – see above) would have been sold as the owner did not deem the
cost of achieving compliance with the new regulations was worth the investment.
10. New Residential Units Sold To Institutional Investors – newly-constructed residential units will be
sold to institutional investors for rental rather than being available for purchase by owner-occupiers.
11. Net New Stock of Residential Units Sold To Owners/ Occupiers – this is the net new residential stock
available for sale.
The following chart shows the information from a number of sources. However, it is a starting point for a
more detailed analysis. The information is shown for the interval 2011Q1 to 2018Q1. The information is
only shown at a national level. Some of the data is available for longer intervals and/or at monthly
frequencies and at a more granular geographical level. However this represents the local common
denominator for all the data.
The data show is:
 Planning Permissions Units – planning permissions granted for residential units4. This is important
because it represents a leading indicator of new residential properties that will be available in the
future. The lag between planning permission and the associated properties being constructed and for
sale is very variable.
 ESB Connections – connections of residential property, either newly built property or previously
disconnected (a property is generally de-energised after 6 months of not being occupied) residential
reconnected5
 New House Guarantee Registrations – These represent registrations HomeBond for warranties on new
homes that are meant to cover major structural defects over a ten year period. These registrations
are normally issued one month before work commences on the site.
 Commencement All Residential Dwellings - A Commencement Notice is notified to a Building Control
Authority (a Local Authority) that a person intends to carry out either works. These relate to notices
for residential dwellings.6
 New Residential Property Purchases – this is information taken from the residential property price
register7. There are many issues with the quality of this data. In the context of this analysis, the
greatest issue is that sales of large numbers of residential units are recorded as single transactions.
 New Dwellings Completed – this is taken from the new CSO data series8
4 BHQ05: Planning Permissions Granted for New Houses and Apartments by Type of Dwelling, Quarter and
Statistic https://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=BHQ05&PLanguage=0
5 http://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/statistics/house-building-and-private-rented/construction-activity-esb-
connections
6 HSM13: Commencement Notices by Local Authority, Residential Units Commenced and Month
https://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=HSM13&PLanguage=0
7 https://www.propertypriceregister.ie/website/npsra/pprweb.nsf/page/ppr-home-en
8 NDQ01: New Dwelling Completions by Type of House and Quarter
https://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=NDQ01&PLanguage=0

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How Many Net New Residential Units Are Really Available?
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The data in the chart is:
Quarter Planning
Permissions
Units
ESB
Connections
New House
Guarantee
Registrations
Commencement
All Residential
Dwellings
New
Residential
Property
Purchases
New Dwellings
Completed
2011Q1 3,667 2,766 274 1,402 752 1,875
2011Q2 3,310 2,561 168 1,235 751 1,791
2011Q3 2,512 2,590 183 1,014 684 1,687
2011Q4 2,156 2,563 209 714 762 1,641
2012Q1 1,355 1,931 144 806 553 1,131
2012Q2 1,406 1,998 195 1,317 623 1,117
2012Q3 1,638 2,107 125 960 754 1,205
2012Q4 1,851 2,452 163 959 1,234 1,458
2013Q1 2,308 1,691 219 965 632 889
2013Q2 1,926 2,009 408 1,085 669 1,146
2013Q3 1,409 1,982 417 1,386 897 1,033
2013Q4 1,556 2,619 282 1,272 1,544 1,507
2014Q1 1,604 2,090 489 5,247 852 1,094

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How Many Net New Residential Units Are Really Available?
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Quarter Planning
Permissions
Units
ESB
Connections
New House
Guarantee
Registrations
Commencement
All Residential
Dwellings
New
Residential
Property
Purchases
New Dwellings
Completed
2014Q2 1,606 2,742 511 379 1,237 1,318
2014Q3 2,144 2,957 679 923 1,284 1,404
2014Q4 2,057 3,227 895 1,064 2,028 1,702
2015Q1 3,213 2,629 789 1,337 1,161 1,371
2015Q2 3,110 2,996 1,157 2,354 1,935 1,570
2015Q3 2,704 3,289 1,492 2,654 1,416 2,033
2015Q4 4,017 3,752 859 2,402 1,705 2,245
2016Q1 3,091 3,144 1,263 2,902 1,054 1,968
2016Q2 3,141 3,498 1,291 3,323 1,613 2,395
2016Q3 5,814 3,865 1,451 3,015 1,759 2,511
2016Q4 4,329 4,425 1,621 3,994 2,381 3,041
2017Q1 4,650 3,896 2,210 3,860 1,623 2,779
2017Q2 4,453 4,640 2,999 5,408 2,126 3,298
2017Q3 4,739 4,997 2,435 4,061 2,351 3,785
2017Q4 6,934 5,738 1,822 4,243 3,174 4,584
2018Q1 8,405 3,158 2,013 4,374 2,025 3,526
There is a data issue with commencement notices for 2014Q1. There was a switch between an old and a
new method of recording at that time.
All the series show the same trend over the relatively short interval.
At no time during the interval does the number of units for which planning permission was granted come
close to the number of
Data is available for two types of commencement notice: single dwelling (once-off development) and
multiple dwellings (multiple unit development). The following shows the data for the number of units
where the commencement notices were for multiple dwellings and the number of new dwellings recorded
in the new time series at a lag of two quarters.
The number of new dwellings recorded in the new data series closely matches the number of
commencement notices at a lag of two quarters apart from the values for the quarter 2014Q1. So the
number of new dwellings completed is around 89% of the number of commencements 6 months later.

8.
How Many Net New Residential Units Are Really Available?
Page 8
The following chart shows the number of dwelling commencements three quarters after the number of
dwelling planning permissions. So about 95% of number of units for which planning permission has been
granted start being constructed 9 months later.

9.
How Many Net New Residential Units Are Really Available?
Page 9
Combing the two sets of data gives a very rough estimate or around 85% of the number of dwellings for
which planning permissions are granted translate into new completed dwellings at a lag of 15 months.
Number Of New Dwellings And Census Data
The context for information on the number of new dwellings is the demand for residential
accommodation. This is driven by demographic factors: size of the population and sizes of different
cohorts.
The following chart shows the estimated annual population9 and the size of the housing stock10 for the
years 1996 to 2017. The housing stock numbers are only available for the census years.
9 Taken from PEA11: Population estimates from 1926 by Single Year of Age, Sex and Year
https://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=PEA11&PLanguage=0
10 Taken from E1071: Housing Stock and Vacancy Rate 1991 to 2016 by County and City, CensusYear and
Statistic https://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=E1071&PLanguage=0

10.
How Many Net New Residential Units Are Really Available?
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The following table contains the population11 and number of dwellings data and shows the differences
between the years.
Year Estimated
Population
Census
Population
Census
Number of
Dwellings
Census
Population
Difference
Census
Number of
Dwellings
Difference
1991 3,525,719 3,525,719 1,160,249
1996 3,626,087 3,626,087 1,258,948 100,368 98,699
1997 3,664,313
1998 3,703,082
1999 3,741,647
2000 3,789,536
2001 3,847,198
2002 3,917,203 3,917,203 1,460,053 291,116 201,105
2003 3,979,853
2004 4,045,188
2005 4,133,839
2006 4,232,929 4,239,848 1,769,613 322,645 309,560
2007 4,375,842
2008 4,485,070
2009 4,533,395
2010 4,554,763
2011 4,574,888 4,588,252 1,994,845 348,404 225,232
2012 4,593,697
2013 4,614,669
2014 4,645,440
11 The population census data is taken from EY001: Population at Each Census from 1841 to 2016 by County, Sex
and CensusYear
https://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=EY001&PLanguage=0

11.
How Many Net New Residential Units Are Really Available?
Page 11
Year Estimated
Population
Census
Population
Census
Number of
Dwellings
Census
Population
Difference
Census
Number of
Dwellings
Difference
2015 4,687,787
2016 4,739,597 4,761,865 2,003,645 173,613 8,800
2017 4,792,490
The only overlapping interval in the population data, census housing stock data and information on
numbers of new dwellings in from 2011Q1 to 2016Q1. Note that the annual population estimates and the
census population numbers because the measure population at different times of the year,
The following table shows the number of new dwellings12, both newly constructed and unfinished
dwellings (ghost estates) that were completed.
Quarter New Dwellings
Completed
Unfinished Total New
Dwellings
2011Q1 1,875 383 2,258
2011Q2 1,791 331 2,122
2011Q3 1,687 326 2,013
2011Q4 1,641 338 1,979
2012Q1 1,131 278 1,409
2012Q2 1,117 357 1,474
2012Q3 1,205 431 1,636
2012Q4 1,458 385 1,843
2013Q1 889 354 1,243
2013Q2 1,146 323 1,469
2013Q3 1,033 393 1,426
2013Q4 1,507 436 1,943
2014Q1 1,094 422 1,516
2014Q2 1,318 627 1,945
2014Q3 1,404 716 2,120
2014Q4 1,702 603 2,305
2015Q1 1,371 342 1,713
2015Q2 1,570 453 2,023
2015Q3 2,033 384 2,417
2015Q4 2,245 492 2,737
2016Q1 1,968 409 2,377
Total 31,185 8,783 39,968
So the number of new dwellings between the 2011 and 2016 census was 39,968 but the difference in the
housing stock recorded at these two censuses was just 8,800. So, assuming these sets of data are correct,
the number of new dwellings was offset by a reduction of 31,168 dwellings elsewhere.
12 The data is taken from NDQ04: ESB Connections by Type of Connection and Quarter
https://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=NDQ04&PLanguage=0

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How Many Net New Residential Units Are Really Available?
Page 12
One likely cause of this reduction was the introduction of the pre-63 regulations referred to on page 4.
There will be other factors that will cause a reduction in housing stock. However, other census recorded
large increases in housing stock. The pre-63 regulation intervention represented a pro-cyclical regulatory
change whose impact was not evaluated before it was implemented.
Based on the assumption that around 85% of the number of planned units become actual units in 15
months (see page 9), the current stock of planned residential units will translate roughly into just under
25,000 new units by mid-2019. This is a very small increase. This does not take into account any loss of
residential housing stock during the same interval.
Summary
Counting the number of new dwellings while important needs to be conducted in a wider context where
factors that affect the reduction in the number of dwellings and demographic changes that affect
demand for dwellings.
Focussing on the narrow issue of new dwellings may be a distraction on the wider problem of an
increasing population and thus a greater demand for residential accommodation and changes that cause
a reduction in dwellings.
There was virtually no net increase in the number of dwellings between the 2011 and 2016 census. There
was a net increase of just 8,800 new dwellings while the population increased by 348,404.