The Department of Housing says that a record number of new houses in Laois are under construction.
For December 2023, the Department says that Commencement Notices for 826 new homes in Laois were received.
This is also the highest number of annual commencements on record, an increase of 52% compared to 2022 (542).
Nationally, the data shows that between January and December 2023, 32,801 Commencement Notices for new homes were received by the Building Control Authorities.
This is the highest number of annual commencements on record, an increase of over 21.5% compared to 2022 (26,957) and is the highest number of annual residential commencements since records began in 2014.
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien said: “These impressive figures indicate that supply, which is key to addressing our housing needs continues to increase and that a robust stock of new housing is in the pipeline.
“The Government initiatives which we introduced last year such as the development levy waiver and the Irish Water rebate are clearly having a positive impact of the viability of projects.
“Combined with the supports for First-Time Buyers such as Help-to-Buy and the First Home Scheme we can really see momentum building.
“Next week, we’ll have the full 2023 housing completion data which will give a clearer picture of delivery for the last year and I expect these figures to also show an increase.
“All the key housing indicators-commencements, completions and planning permissions are trending upwards which bodes well for future supply.
“This performance is all the more impressive considering the recent Euroconstruct report which shows that while with total construction activity across 19 European countries is expected to fall in 2024, Ireland’s construction activity is due to expand by 4.4% this year.”
