Construction on new homes in April fell to its lowest level in nearly ten years, reports The Mirror.
Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson, told the Irish Mirror that the sharp decline in construction starts indicates housing supply will be constrained in both 2025 and 2026, raising concerns that the Government may fall short of its housing targets once again.
Data shows that only 1,027 homes were started in April 2025, reports The Mirror.
This marks a 95 percent decrease compared to the same month last year, when construction began on 18,700 homes. However, this drop is believed to be linked to the Government’s waiver on development levies for new homes.
The waiver was originally due to expire in April 2024, but it was extended for houses that began construction before the end of 2023, reports The Mirror.
April’s figures are the lowest since April 2016, when just 883 homes broke ground. March also recorded the weakest figures since 2016.
So far this year, construction has commenced on 3,945 homes, while 42,316 homes have begun building in the past 12 months, reports The Mirror.
Even though 69,060 homes started construction in 2024, only 30,300 homes were completed—falling short of the Government’s targets.
Deputy Ó Broin told the Irish Mirror that the Government is on track to miss its housing targets for the next two years.
He said: “This is the second month in a row where commencement figures have been the worst figures since 2016. What this shows you is the chronic delays in approval of social and affordable housing projects in the Department of Housing is impacting on supply, the very significant constraints on electricity grid capacity and water connections is having impact on public and private sector supply. There’s a general sense in the industry in which people just feel it’s too risky to build homes, given the fact that prices are continuing to rise. Even with all of the demand-side subsidies thrown at them by Government, people can’t afford the homes. This just shows that the housing crisis is going from bad to worse and that neither the Minister nor the government seem to understand they’re spending all of their time blaming everybody else. On Wednesday, Micheál Martin was blaming councils. Last week, he was blaming environmental groups and residents’ associations,” reports The Mirror.
“The buck stops with the government. The Government is in charge and for the second month in a row, the worst commencement figures since 2016. What this shows you is certainly supply this year, and, crucially, next year is going to be continually constrained. Under the current plan, they went to hit 40,000 homes this year and increase it further next year. What this shows you is that they’re not just going to miss their targets this year, which almost everybody is saying at this point, but they’re also going to miss their targets next year,” reports The Mirror.
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