Nearly 500 new houses built in Offaly in last 15 months

A TOTAL of 101 new houses were completed in Offaly in the first three months of this year, according to the Central Statistics Office.

It is the third successive quarter to show a decline in new house completions across the county.

In the last three months of 2024, 112 were completed and the figure for the third quarter of last year (July, August, September) was 123.

A year ago, in the first three months of 2024, 97 new houses were built in Offaly. In all, there were 397 new houses added in 2024, bringing the total for the last 15 months to 498.

The Tullamore Electoral Area leads the way with 271 new houses built between the start of 2024 and the end of March this year.

Offaly new house completions

First quarter 2025

Tullamore Electoral Area 48

Birr Electoral Area 36

Edenderry Electoral Area 17

Total 101

Fourth quarter 2024

Tullamore Electoral Area 67

Birr Electoral Area 16

Edenderry Electoral Area 29

Total 112

Third quarter 2024

Tullamore Electoral Area 85

Birr Electoral Area 14

Edenderry Electoral Area 24

Total 123

Second quarter 2024

Tullamore Electoral Area 31

Birr Electoral Area 15

Edenderry Electoral Area 19

Total 65

First quarter 2024

Tullamore Electoral Area 40

Birr Electoral Area 13

Edenderry Electoral Area 44

Total 97

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The CSO said its primary source for New Dwellings Completions is the ESB Networks new domestic connections dataset.

While the number of completions in Offaly in the first quarter of 2024 and 2025 was very similar – 97 and 101 respectively, there was a 7.4% decline across the entire Midlands region of Offaly, Laois, Westmeath and Longford.

That is the biggest regional fall in the country. The equivalent figure for the South-East (Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Wexford) was 3.6%.

All of the other regions saw growth. The largest relative increase was in the West (Galway City and County, Mayo, Roscommon) at 5.8%, with increases also in the Border (5%), South-West (4.8%), Mid-East (3.9%), Dublin (2.%), and Mid-West (0.7%).

Nationally, there were 5,938 new dwelling completions in January, February, and March 2025, a rise of 2% on the same three months of 2024.

Nearly one-third, 32%, of all completions this year were in Dublin and another 20.8% were in in the Mid-East region (Louth, Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow).

More than half of the completions (50.9%) were in development schemes, 30% were apartments, and 19.1% were single dwellings.

Housing Minister James Browne TD welcomed the national increase but said delivery must be improved.

Minister Browne said: “Today’s figures are to be welcomed – and will be very much welcomed by the almost 6,000 families who will avail of these homes. That said, this Government is committed to delivering on very ambitious targets. I want to scale up delivery as rapidly as possible so we can see much greater increases in the future.

“Soon I will be putting in place a dedicated housing activation office team to focus on the ‘problem’ areas which are most in need of attention to get building moving – to identify sites for housing delivery and unlock them, to call out where the system is lagging, and to impose the solutions we need.

“Additionally, I will be establishing An Coimisiún Pleanála in the coming weeks to replace An Bord Pleanála. This new body, with a changed organisational structure, will have mandatory statutory deadlines – accelerating crucial planning decisions and reducing delays in court.

“We must deliver more homes, more quickly, for more people and build on the increases we see today.”