Kildare has second highest house building rate in Ireland this year

Kildare has the second highest rate of home building in the country so far this year, the latest figures have shown.

The data is contained in the Department of Housing’s log of Commencement Notices for 2022 which indicate the number of homes on which construction has begun in any given month.

Figures for Kildare for 2022 so far shows that work has started on 1,062 homes in the county.

The highest local authority area is South Dublin County Council with work begun on 1,103 homes.

In Kildare, there were were 245 ‘commencement notices’ in January; 330 in February; 295 in March and 198 in April.

The total for the whole of 2021 was 3,165 while the equivalent figure for 2020 was 1,745.

The figure for 2019 which was unaffected by Covid-19 restrictions was 2,378.

In April, Kildare had the highest number of housing units where work had begun.

Overall, the number of commencement notices lodged for new homes dropped by 20% in April compared to March.

Nationally, notices for 2,346 new homes were submitted in April, compared to 2,809 in March.

The figure is less than half the 4,736 notices that were lodged in April of last year, just after construction restrictions were eased and building ramped up again after a prolonged stoppage.

Overall, 32,456 commencement notices were received by authorities in the year to the end of April.

That is almost 52% higher than in the previous 12-month period, although during much of that time the construction sector was under Covid-19 restrictions.

According to the department, apart from in 2020 when restrictions due to the pandemic existed, the number of commencement notices for homes that have been lodged has increased every year since 2015.

The Government's Housing for All strategy has a target for around 33,000 homes to be completed every year over its term.