Ireland’s Central Bank has warned that water and energy infrastructure constraints will reduce the number of homes built in the coming years.
In its Quarterly Bulletin 2025:3, released this morning, the Bank said completions were expected to reach 32,500 in 2025, before rising to 36,000 in 2026 and 40,000 in 2027. It warned that constraints in water and energy networks would be “marginally more binding” on the number of dwellings delivered.
“The projection for housing completions has been revised downwards for 2026 and 2027,” the bulletin stated.
“Constraints in water and energy infrastructure are expected to be marginally more binding on the number of dwellings that can be delivered in those years.”
The Bank also pointed to risks of higher construction costs, noting that productivity in the sector lags other industries.
“The necessary rise in construction activity…poses short-term risks of higher unit labour costs and inflation,” it said.
“To mitigate these risks, linking public capital spending to innovative delivery methods and incentivising scale in investment projects is crucial.”
While housing completions were revised downwards, the bulletin said projections for improvements and non-residential building had been “revised up modestly across the forecast horizon.”
It also underlined the importance of addressing infrastructure gaps to strengthen Ireland’s investment climate.
“Addressing the long-term challenges posed by geoeconomic fragmentation requires tackling the same constraints to domestic growth – by closing infrastructure gaps in water, energy, transport, and housing,” the Bank said.
“This is essential to improve Ireland’s attractiveness for foreign direct investment and to contain the costs of living and doing business.”
The new projections will increase pressure on the Government, which is targeting the delivery of 300,000 new homes by 2030 but has missed recent annual goals.
The latest figures come as separate data from the Central Statistics Office show house prices continue to rise. The CSO said the median price of a home in Ireland now stands at €374,999.