Ireland’s Apartment Delivery Slows
Ireland's housing market showed a widening split between property types in the second quarter of 2026. Overall completions fell 3.6% year on year and apartment delivery dropped 12.2%, while scheme-house completions increased 2%. Housing output for the full first half remains well above 2025 levels, but apartments are growing considerably more slowly than houses. For institutional investors, the most important feature is the concentration of apartment construction in Dublin, which supplies most of the large-scale stock suitable for professionally managed rental portfolios.
Irish housing completions fall in the second quarter
Ireland completed 8,823 new dwellings between April and June, down from 9,152 in the same quarter of 2025. Apartment completions recorded the steepest fall, declining 12.2% from 3,027 to 2,658.
Scheme dwellings — houses forming part of developments containing two or more houses — increased 2% to 4,738. Single or one-off house completions declined 3.7% to 1,427.
Scheme dwellings accounted for 54% of all completions, apartments for 30% and single houses for 16%. On a seasonally adjusted basis, total housing delivery fell 6% from the previous quarter and scheme completions declined 10%, while apartment completions increased 1%. The figures were published on July 30 in the Central Statistics Office's Q2 housing release.
The 12.2% decline therefore does not represent a continuous contraction throughout 2026. It is a year-on-year comparison with a strong Q2 2025, while seasonally adjusted apartment delivery actually edged higher from the first quarter.
First-half housing delivery remains above 2025
The six-month picture is substantially stronger. Using the latest revised CSO quarterly figures, Ireland completed 7,856 dwellings in Q1 and 8,823 in Q2. First-half delivery therefore reached 16,679 units, compared with 15,059 a year earlier, an increase of approximately 10.8%.
Apartment completions increased from 4,794 to 5,011, or around 4.5%. Scheme housing rose from 7,677 to 8,830 units, an increase of roughly 15%.
The main change is therefore in the composition of new supply rather than an overall fall in construction. Housing delivery is still expanding, but apartment output is growing much more slowly than development-led housebuilding.
The first quarter provided a particularly strong start to the year. The initial CSO release described total completions as almost one-third above Q1 2025 and the highest first-quarter result since the statistical series began in 2011. Some historical quarterly figures were subsequently revised when the Q2 dataset was published.
Dublin delivers three-quarters of Ireland’s apartments
Ireland's apartment market remains overwhelmingly dependent on the capital. Of the 2,658 apartments completed in Q2, 2,006 were in Dublin, giving the region 75.5% of national apartment delivery.
Dublin also accounted for 36% of all dwellings completed nationally, although its total housing output fell 16.4% from a year earlier. Within Dublin City, apartments represented 91.4% of completions, or 1,170 of the 1,280 dwellings delivered.
The construction mix is different outside the capital. The Mid-East region, comprising Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow, completed 1,301 scheme houses and represented 19.6% of national housing delivery. Overall completions increased most rapidly in the Border region, up 14.6%, followed by the South-East at 12% and the Mid-East at 9.4%.
The urban-rural split further illustrates the distinction between property types. Some 68% of apartments were delivered in cities, while almost 95% of scheme houses were located in cities, satellite towns or independent urban towns. More than 85% of single-house completions were in rural categories.
That distinction matters for institutional capital. Large apartment developments allow investors to finance, acquire and operate hundreds of homes within one location. Additional lower-density housing in regional markets therefore does not directly replace a weaker pipeline of large urban rental schemes.
Dublin apartment planning approvals weaken
Planning statistics provide another indication of potential future supply. Ireland granted permission for 8,092 new dwelling units in the first quarter of 2026, 1% fewer than a year earlier.
Apartment approvals declined 2.7% from 3,240 to 3,153. Total house approvals were almost unchanged at 4,939, compared with 4,937 in Q1 2025. Within that category, multi-development houses fell 4%, while approvals for one-off houses increased 12.4%.
Dublin was significantly weaker. Total dwelling units approved across the capital's four local authorities fell 34% to 1,452. Apartment approvals dropped 31.6%, from 1,556 to 1,064, while house approvals declined 39.7% to 388.
The CSO cautions that planning data can move sharply from quarter to quarter because a small number of large developments can materially affect the figures. A single quarter therefore should not be extrapolated into a long-term trend. The numbers are contained in the CSO's Q1 planning-permissions release.
For investors, planning approvals are more useful as a measure of the future development pipeline than as a direct forecast of completions. Several years can separate planning permission, financing, construction and delivery.
Institutional residential capital is returning
Lower apartment completions do not in themselves show that institutional investors are withdrawing from Ireland. Construction statistics do not classify completed homes by owner or financing source, so it would be incorrect to infer capital flows directly from quarterly building data.
Investment figures point instead to a recovery. Irish commercial real estate investment totalled approximately €1.5 billion in the first half of 2026, almost 70% ahead of the same period in 2025. Residential assets — a CBRE category spanning social housing, private rented housing and student accommodation — represented 31% of H1 investment. The consultancy linked activity partly to regulatory reform and an expanding buyer base that includes European insurance capital in its Q2 investment-market review.
A major transaction in June provided a further indication of institutional appetite. Kennedy Wilson and APG formed a €2 billion residential development and asset-management platform covering more than 3,400 private rented homes in Ireland.
The venture includes more than 1,100 completed and occupied homes at Cherrywood in south Dublin and approximately 2,300 new rental units planned across the Player Wills, Bailey Gibson and Clonliffe sites. Construction is commencing on more than 700 units at Player Wills, while work on more than 1,500 units at the other two developments is expected to begin in early 2027, according to the Kennedy Wilson announcement.
Ireland is therefore showing two trends at once: large-scale capital remains willing to invest in rental housing, while the near-term flow of new apartment stock remains constrained. If that persists, competition for completed and development-stage assets could intensify.
Ireland’s rental market continues to expand
Underlying rental demand remains significant. Ireland had 246,477 registered private and cost-rental tenancies in the first quarter of 2026, up 2.4% year on year and the highest total since the current statistical series began.
Cost rental is an Irish tenure model in which rents are principally linked to the costs of developing, financing, maintaining and managing homes rather than simply to the maximum price achievable in the open market.
The standardised average rent for new tenancies reached €1,755 per month in Q4 2025, up 5% year on year. Existing tenancies averaged €1,503, an increase of 4.4%, leaving sitting tenants paying an average €252 less each month than new renters, according to the Residential Tenancies Board's quarterly update.
Growth in registered tenancies does not imply that Ireland's housing shortage has been resolved. It demonstrates the scale of a rental market whose demand continues to underpin the case for additional urban apartment development.
Apartment prices are rising faster than house prices
Supply constraints coincide with continued residential price inflation. Ireland's national Residential Property Price Index was 5.6% higher in June than a year earlier, the slowest annual increase since January 2024 and down from 6.1% in May.
Prices in Dublin increased 4.6%, but houses and apartments followed different paths. Dublin house prices rose 3.9%, while apartments increased 7%. Outside the capital, overall prices rose 6.4%, with houses up 6% and apartments 10.2%. National apartment prices increased 8%.
The median household purchase price over the 12 months to June was €396,000. Dublin's median was €500,000 and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown reached €682,334. Blackrock's A94 postcode was the most expensive in the country at a median €851,750, according to the June Residential Property Price Index published by the CSO on August 19.
Faster apartment-price growth does not establish a direct causal link between the Q2 construction decline and property values. Interest rates, household income, credit, migration, investment demand and the mix of properties sold all influence prices. The data does show, however, that supply growth has not yet been sufficient to remove upward pressure in the apartment segment.
Ireland needs about €20 billion of development finance a year
The apartment pipeline matters increasingly because of the scale of Ireland's national housing targets. The Delivering Homes, Building Communities plan aims to provide 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030, including 72,000 social homes and 90,000 affordable housing supports.
The government plans to use infrastructure spending, tax measures, planning reform and private-sector development to accelerate supply. The targets are set out in Ireland's current national housing plan.
Public funding alone is not expected to meet the capital requirement. The Department of Housing estimates that at least €20 billion of development finance will be required every year to deliver at least 300,000 new homes by 2030. At the MIPIM property investment conference in March, Housing Minister James Browne explicitly identified domestic and international private capital as central to meeting the target.
The government has also targeted apartment economics directly. Its housing plan includes a lower value-added tax rate for apartments, tax measures for cost-rental housing and changes to apartment design standards. The measures underline how development viability has become a formal policy concern rather than simply an issue raised by investors.
As experts at International Investment report, the second-quarter figures do not point to a general collapse in Irish housing construction: total first-half completions increased by about 10.8%. The more significant risk is inside the supply mix. Apartment completions rose only around 4.5% over the six months, fell 12.2% year on year in Q2, and three-quarters of national apartment delivery remains dependent on Dublin. At the same time, the capital has recorded a sharp drop in apartment planning approvals. For institutional investors, that combination could mean fewer scalable rental assets and stronger competition for developments with viable economics. For the government, it makes national housing targets harder to meet even while the headline number of completed homes continues to rise.
FAQ: Ireland’s housing market in 2026
How many homes did Ireland complete in Q2 2026?
Ireland completed 8,823 new dwellings, 3.6% fewer than in the same quarter of 2025.
How much did apartment delivery decline?
Apartment completions fell 12.2% year on year to 2,658. On a seasonally adjusted basis, however, they increased about 1% from Q1.
Did housing construction fall over the whole first half?
No. Ireland completed 16,679 dwellings in H1 2026, compared with 15,059 a year earlier, an increase of approximately 10.8%.
How many apartments were completed in H1 2026?
Using the latest revised quarterly data, 5,011 apartments were completed, up from 4,794 a year earlier, or around 4.5%.
Why is Dublin so important to the apartment market?
Dublin delivered 2,006 apartments in Q2, representing 75.5% of Ireland's national apartment completions.
Are institutional investors leaving Ireland?
Current investment data does not indicate a broad retreat. Residential assets represented about 31% of Irish commercial property investment in the first half, while Kennedy Wilson and APG launched a €2 billion residential platform.
Are Irish apartment prices still rising?
Yes. Dublin apartment prices increased 7% year on year in June, while apartments outside the capital rose 10.2%.
How many homes does Ireland plan to deliver by 2030?
The government's current housing plan targets 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030.