The CSO has released the Q2 2010 data on planning permissions (see here). The data confirms the present downward trend for the awarding of planning permission by local authorities, unsurprising given the significant slow down in the property sector.
The headline figures are that in Q2 2010 there were:
- 4,675 planning permissions granted (compared with 6,756 in Q2 2009 [a decrease of 30.8%] ) – 1,513 for new dwellings, 772 new other, 1,996 extensions, 394 conversions/alterations (see Figure 1).
- of the 1,513 planning permissions for new dwellings these related to a total of 5,378 units (as opposed to 12,831 units for the same period in 2009 [a decrease of 58.1%] and 23,988 in Q2 2007 [a decrease of 77.6%]).
- of these 5,378 units, 3,043 were for houses (as opposed to 7,739 in Q2 2009 [a decrease of 60.7%]) and 2,335 for apartments (as opposed to 5,092 in Q2 2009 [a decrease of 54.1%]). (see Figure 2)
- 86.1% of all new dwelling applications were for one-off houses (1,300) though these constituted only 24.2% of all new dwelling units granted planning permission.
The following two graphs present the data for all kinds of planning permission (Figure 1) and for total number of units being given permission (Figure 2) over the past few years.
Figure 1: Quarterly totals for planning permissions by type (Q1 2001-Q2 2010)
Figure 2: No. of permissions/units for houses and apartments (Q1 2006-Q2 2010)
Rob Kitchin
Ireland after NAMA 
September 23, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Your posting charts the decline in the dwellings side of the construction industry. It was this sub-sector that contributed significantly to the bubble, driven partially by government policies and tax breaks etc.
Any chance that you might also analyse the CSO data to establish what the trends are for the non-dwellings side of this data?
To what extent is it possible to use this kind of data as a leading indicator of other productive activity in the economy eg. new industrial and office units, infrastructure etc.?
If this is done elsewhere (eg. buried in economic forecasts), perhaps you might point it out to me.
I am aware that getting planning permission does not necessarily mean that the physical development will take place or if it does, that it will be used. Examples are the two newly-built stations on the LUAS line to Cherrywood which will not now be used, along a new station on the Kildare line – in both cases due to the lack of development (presumably dwellings) that was epxected when these lines were planned.
September 23, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Donal, the CSO figures are divided into 4 categories: new construction dwellings; new construction other; extension; alteration/conversion. New construction other consists of ‘non-residential building and civil
engineering’. There is nothing beyond that in these figures. What the data does give is the number of planning permissions by county/region and floorspace. So, in 2007 there were 19,402 ‘new construction other’ permissions for 9,314,000 m2 of floorspace (2007 was the peak year as per graph above for both permissions and floorspace). I imagine that most of this is retail and office space, though I know of no ready source of specific data (see https://irelandafternama.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/end-of-the-fifth-office-development-boom/ and https://irelandafternama.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/retail-space-and-rents/). I’m fairly certain we have the data mapped for the past decade at county level; if that’s the case, I’ll look at doing a post on that in the next week or so.
September 24, 2010 at 8:20 am
Whilst this is based on personal observation, it is interesting to note that releases of new housing are now featuring much more prominently on the daft website in my local area. For example, there is an expansion of one major housing development in Kilcock, Co Kildare, being released, despite two other developments in the town struggling to shift new properties. One of these developments is small, and the houses seem to be very well constructed, with B energy ratings, reduced in price, but not selling well. We are also in Autumn, which is traditionally not a strong time in the housing market. Building new developments now when the existing turnover in a local area is very sluggish seems bizarre practice.
It seems a great pity that the Irish Property Watch website has ceased to function: is there any substitute for this (apologies if I have missed an earlier post)?