Louth housing stats for December over double what was actually reported

Revisions published this week by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, to Commencement Notices data for residential construction starts in Louth, and nationally last year, show that number of homes in Louth on which construction began in December, was actually more than twice what was originally reported by the Department in January.

Work began on 653 homes in Louth in December 2024, more than double the 291 originally reported by the Department last month. Of the 653 homes commenced in December, 18 were one off houses; 537 were houses part of a scheme development; and 98 were apartments.

The revised figures show that work commenced on 3,196 homes in Louth last year, up from 2,775 originally reported in January.

Explaining the reason for the difference, the Department said that in 2024 additional verification was undertaken to ensure reported construction had begun. Upon further validation, as well as discussions with other organisations who have analysed the publicly available Building Control Management System (BCMS) data, revisions to 2024 published statistics have been made, resulting in a higher figure.

The Department says that the revised stronger numbers towards the end of last year particularly reflect the surge in commencements as a result of the development levy waiver coming to an end on 31 December 2024.

Looking at figures for January, just ten new homes were commenced in Louth. Six of these were one off houses and four were scheme units.

Nationally, the data shows that 1,178 homes commenced in January 2025. Of the 1,178 homes, 38% are scheme dwellings, 51% are apartments and 11% are for one-off units. Of all the homes commenced in January, 42% were in the four Dublin local authorities (489 homes).

By Local authority, the most homes commenced were in Dublin City (430 homes, 37%) followed by Meath (213 homes, 18%) and Wexford (107 homes, 9%).