Cork city had most successful month for housing commencements so far this year in November

Cork city saw its most successful month for housing commencements so far this year in November, with 366 commencement notices, but commencements are down 79% compared to this time last year, according to new government data.

The Cork city figure includes 331 apartments, 30 scheme units and five one off houses. 

It brings the total Cork city commencements in 2025 to 941, including 335 scheme units, 582 apartment units, and 24 one off units, with just one month left of the year.

This year’s November commencements are a significant increase compared to the seven in November 2024 in Cork city, however, barring an exceptionally busy December, the city looks likely to be far off last year’s total of 4,584.

Cork county saw just 39 commencements in November, down from 118 in November 2024. This includes 22 one off units, nine scheme and eight apartments.

The county is performing better than the city in terms of overall completions with 1,128 so far this year, the second highest in Ireland after Dublin city, though still far below last year’s total of 4,630.

As of November 2024, there had been 4,471 commencements in Cork city and 3,368 in Cork county, meaning a 79% decrease in Cork city and 67% decrease in Cork county or an overall decrease of 74%.

However, housing completions across Cork are up slightly this year so far, with 2,602 commencements in the first three quarters of 2025 across Cork city and county compared to 2,513 in the first three quarters of 2024, a 3.5% increase.

This includes a 30% increase from 844 to 1,100 in Cork city, with the city looking likely to surpass last year’s 12 month total of 1,220 completions.

In Cork county, completions have decreased by 10% from 1,669 for the first three quarters last year to 1,502 this year, with considerable ground to be made up in the last three months of this year to surpass the 2,316 commencements of last year.

It comes as chief economist with BPFI Ali Ugur notes in the group’s Housing Market Monitor notes that across Ireland: “The rate of increase in housing supply seems to have improved in 2025 with around 35,000 units expected to be completed during the year.

“We expect a similar or slightly higher level of completions in 2026, however looking at the current commencement activity in the residential construction sector, it looks challenging for the sector to increase output significantly after 2026 unless we see a significant increase in the commencement activity in the first half of next year.

“In addition, there still seems to be skills gaps for certain occupations in the wider sector, and especially in the occupation groups where residential construction sector heavily relies on in order to increase output significantly.”