'Mismatch' between need and supply of one and two-bed homes in Cork city 

Apartments are a key factor in the government’s homebuilding strategy because their vertical nature means a much higher concentration of homes on a smaller patch of land.

Cork city has a much lower apartment share than Dublin and other European cities – around one in six homes in Cork is an apartment, compared with roughly 75% in many European cities.

Apartments are also particularly important due to a huge mismatch between the amount of smaller homes and the amount of people looking for them, and apartments are the main way to increase supply of smaller homes.

Increased demand for one-bed homes 

Due to a range of factors, including people starting families later and having less children, demand for one-bed homes has increased sharply, but demand has not kept pace. 

Cork city already has more than twice as many one and two-person households as there are one and two bedroom homes.

It has 45,906 one and two-person households and just 20,241 one and two-person homes.

The Cork City Development Plan (2022-2028) has forecast growth of over 16,000 households in Cork city during its lifetime, with 54.5% of this growth to be among one and two-person households.

Ireland has the third highest level of ‘under-occupied’ homes in the EU, at 66% compared to the EU average of 33%, but moving to more suitable homes and freeing up a smaller one is made difficult by the lack of smaller housing units.

The Echo recently revealed that there are more than 3,000 applicants on Cork City Council’s social housing list who require a one-bed and more than 1,300 who require a two-bed property.

That means some 87% of the approximate 5,000 people on the social housing list, excluding transfer tenants, require a one or two-bedroomed property, compared with just 10% of applicants who require a three-bed home.

Another particularly vulnerable group in need of the smaller homes, which are usually delivered in the form of apartments, are homeless people.

Cork Simon report 

A recent report by Cork Simon found that in the south west, covering Cork and Kerry, single adults account for more than three in four adults in emergency accommodation.

The report’s author, Sophie Johnston, said that a dedicated national action plan for this group was needed, and that it must include specific targets for the delivery of one bed homes. 

Ms Johnson said that though there had been some increases in the building of one bed homes, “it doesn’t match the need”, adding that as well as being the majority group in emergency accommodation, single adults were also the main group on the social housing waiting list.

“Even in general society, one in four households are single adults, and less than one in 10 homes are one bed, so there’s a real mismatch between the need and the supply.”

In 2022, single person households made up 24% of households in Cork city, not including adults living with their parents.

One-bed homes accounted for only 7% of housing stock, and apartment building is the fastest way to close this gap, and in doing so, help get people out of emergency accommodation.