Over 98% of Dublin city planning permissions for apartments amid calls for more houses
Housing delivery across Dublin overwhelmingly relates to apartments, with councillors stressing a need to address those waiting for more three-bedroom and four-bedroom homes.
Senior Planning Brian Ward outlined the recent returns from the 4Dublin Housing Supply Pipeline at the Planning and Urban Regeneration SPC last Wednesday. This related to the residential planning permissions and housing construction activity of Dublin ’s four local authorities as of Q3 2025.
With 80,580 permitted residential units and a further 12,683 proposed new units pending decisions on planning applications, Mr Ward stated there has been a slight downward trend in recent years when compared to the peak of over 87,000 units in Q4 2023.
The quarterly report revealed that planning permission is in place in Dublin City Council for 27,288 new homes (26,813 or 98.3% of which are apartments), with a further 3,626 proposed units pending decisions on planning applications.
Of 27,288 permitted units, there is a cumulative total of 13,445 active permissions, comprising 1,047 units built to date and 12,398 units under construction on 73 active sites. 13,055 or 97.1% of active permissions are apartments.
There are 13,843 inactive permissions, representing 50.7% of the total permitted units. Of the total 13,843 uncommenced units, there are 11,358 uncommenced units on 108 inactive sites. 11,285 or 99.4% of total uncommenced permissions are apartments.
The delivery of this statistical information was welcomed by councillors, although they criticised the lack of clarity regarding bedroom sizes and room numbers within the planning permissions. Councillor Gavin Pepper said it’s disappointing that almost all new homes in Dublin apartments when people in places like Finglas and Ballymum “need a good mix of family homes.”
“Dublin has 13,843 homes with planning permission that haven’t even started. Almost all of these are apartments. This slows down regeneration in places like Ballymun and Finglas. Why are over half of all permitted homes still inactive?” he asked.
Mr Ward explained that the pipeline of delivery can take several years and that it’s not feasible for all accepted units to be delivered at any given time. With plenty of stumbling blocks that occur along the planning process, he said “extra permissions” are often given “on the basis that only a proportion will get delivered.”
Fianna Fail Cllr Ammar Ali also requested information on how many three-bed and four-bed units there are for the Dublin South Central area. He cited the lack of larger council housing units being built “putting pressure on the housing list for families.”
He said that, while there seems to be movement on the housing list for those waiting for one and two bedroom apartments, those looking for larger homes are “at a standstill” and he fears “chaos in the future” if they don’t address all the families in emergency accommodation or who are facing eviction.
However, Deputy City Planner Malachy Bradley clarified that the data they had collected across four local authorities did not relate to the mix or size of individual units and to break down information is “somewhat challenging for us.” He said Housing Need and Demand Assessments (HNDA) for specific areas does show a need for a better mix of one, two, and three bedroom units, but that housing completion last year was a “record high for the past 10 years.”
While the hard information around apartment sizes may not be readily available, Cllr Pepper stressed the number of families facing eviction that need three and four bedroom apartments “is astronomical.” He called for the information to be collected so that councillors can get a better understanding of what their area's specific housing needs are.
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