More houses than apartments were granted planning permission in the first three months of 2022 – the first time this has happened since the second quarter of 2019.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said that planning permission for a total of 8,463 homes was granted in the three-month period – up more than 20% compared with the same period last year.

Its figures show that almost 4,700 (55%) permits were for houses, while just under 3,800 (45%) were for apartments.

Almost half of the apartments granted permission were located in Dublin.

SHD apartment figure falls

The number of houses given planning permission represented a jump of more than 50% from a year earlier, while there was a 2.5% drop in apartments.

The number of apartments approved under the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) process fell by 25% to just over 2,000, while the number of housing units jumped by almost 300% to 556.

An SHD is where applications for developments of at least 100 residential units, or 200-plus student bed-spaces, can be made directly to An Bord Pleanála.

The CSO figures also show that the number of one-off houses granted permission was 2,081 – up more than 25%, and the highest figure since the third quarter of 2009.