Last updated: August 2026. Human written and fact checked against each named source.
Ireland has just over 2.1 million dwellings, and no two counties look alike: Dublin City has the State’s oldest homes, South Dublin its lowest vacancy, Meath its newest estates, and Leitrim eight times the empty-home rate of the capital’s suburbs. This page collects the current figures on the Irish housing stock in one place: how many homes there are, what types they are, when and where they were built, how many stand empty, and what condition their energy ratings reveal. Every number links to the Central Statistics Office or Eurostat release it came from. It is written for journalists, researchers, estate agents and homeowners who need a verified Irish figure rather than an estimate.
Key Irish Housing Stock Statistics at a Glance
- Ireland had 2,112,121 dwellings at Census 2022, of which 1,836,728 were occupied by their usual residents and 163,433 were vacant. Source: CSO Census 2022, table F2095
- 36,215 new dwellings were completed in 2025, up 20.2% on the 30,124 completed in 2024 (calculated), and 37,835 were completed in the twelve months to June 2026. Source: CSO New Dwelling Completions, table NDQ01
- 89.7% of people in Ireland live in a house rather than a flat, the figure the EU averages at 51.5%. Source: Eurostat, ilc_lvho01, 2025
- 41.2% of occupied Irish homes are detached houses, 25.4% semi-detached, 20.3% terraced and 13.0% flats or apartments (calculated). Source: CSO Census 2022, table FY033A
- 65.4% of occupied homes were built before 2001, and 154,290 predate 1919 (calculated). Source: CSO Census 2022, table FY033A
- Dublin City has the oldest stock in the State, with 14.9% of homes built before 1919; Meath has the newest, with 13.1% built since 2011 (calculated). Source: CSO Census 2022, table FY033A
- 70,149 dwellings were vacant on the CSO’s electricity-based measure in the fourth quarter of 2024, a rate of 3.2%. Source: CSO Vacant Dwellings, table VAC12
- Vacancy runs from 7.8% in Leitrim and 6.3% in Donegal down to 1.1% in Fingal and 0.9% in South Dublin. Source: CSO, table VAC14, Q4 2024
- 1,367,605 dwellings, 64.8% of the stock, had a Building Energy Rating by the second quarter of 2026; 36.0% of them are rated A or B and 16.7% are rated E, F or G (calculated). Source: CSO Domestic Building Energy Ratings, table EBQ02
- Of BER-assessed homes built before 1950, 55.3% are rated E, F or G, against 11.1% rated A or B (calculated). Source: CSO table EBQ02
How Many Homes Ireland Has
Census 2022 counted 2,112,121 permanent dwellings in the State. On Census night, 1,836,728 of them were occupied by their usual residents, 10,210 were occupied only by visitors, 34,794 stood empty because their residents were temporarily away, 66,956 were holiday homes and 163,433 were otherwise vacant, giving a census vacancy rate of 7.7% (CSO Census 2022, table F2095).
The stock is growing at its fastest rate in over a decade. 36,215 new dwellings were completed in 2025, up 20.2% on the 30,124 of 2024 (calculated), and completions in the twelve months to June 2026 reached 37,835. Apartments made up 12,039 of the 2025 total, or 33.2% (calculated from CSO table NDQ01). Household formation still outpaces building, which keeps pressure on the existing stock and keeps older homes in use for longer.
Measured by residential electricity connections, the largest local stocks are Dublin City with 217,270 dwellings, Cork County with 194,076, Fingal with 147,235, South Dublin with 117,185 and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown with 114,184; Kildare, at 95,416, holds the largest stock outside Dublin and Cork. Leitrim has the smallest at 20,229 (CSO table VAC14, Q4 2024). The four Dublin authorities together hold 595,874 connections, or 26.9% of the national total of 2,214,691 (calculated).
What Types of Homes They Are
Ireland remains a nation of houses. Eurostat’s 2025 figures show 89.7% of Irish people living in a house and 10.0% in a flat, while the EU as a whole splits 51.5% to 47.8% (Eurostat, ilc_lvho01). No other housing profile in western Europe is as house-heavy, which is one reason exterior painting, render and fascia work is a bigger trade here than in apartment-dominated markets.
| Dwelling type (occupied homes) | Households | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Detached house | 756,660 | 41.2% |
| Semi-detached house | 466,261 | 25.4% |
| Terraced house | 372,849 | 20.3% |
| Flat or apartment (purpose-built) | 190,197 | 10.4% |
| Flat or apartment (converted building) | 49,102 | 2.7% |
Source: CSO Census 2022, table FY033A; shares calculated, with bed-sits and not-stated making up the remainder. Dublin’s mix is different: across the four Dublin local authorities, 26.8% of occupied homes are flats or apartments and 33.4% are terraced houses (calculated), which is why so much of the capital’s painting work is terraces, railings and apartment common areas rather than detached gables.
How Old the Stock Is, County by County
Nationally, 65.4% of occupied homes were built before 2001 and 40.7% before 1981; 154,290 homes, or 8.4%, predate 1919. The single largest cohort, 450,817 homes or 24.5%, went up between 2001 and 2010 (all calculated from CSO Census 2022, table FY033A).
The extremes sit at opposite ends of the country. Dublin City Council has the oldest stock in the State, with 14.9% of its homes built before 1919, followed by Cork County at 12.8%, Leitrim at 11.9%, Tipperary at 11.6% and Kilkenny at 11.3% (calculated). The newest stock rings the capital: 13.1% of Meath’s homes, 12.6% of Kildare’s and 12.3% of Fingal’s were built in 2011 or later, with Wicklow at 10.0% (calculated). In other words, the commuter counties hold the newest estates while the city centres and the north-west hold the period stock that needs the most upkeep.
Inside Dublin’s Housing Stock
The four Dublin local authorities hold 518,490 occupied homes between them, and each one is a different era of building. Dublin City is the period core: 42.4% of its 225,519 occupied homes were built before 1961, including 33,576 that predate 1919 (calculated from CSO table FY033A). Dún Laoghaire Rathdown is the mid-century belt, with 26.1% of its homes built between 1946 and 1970. South Dublin is the 1970s county, where 23.1% of homes went up in that single decade as the western suburbs were built out. Fingal is the newest, with 31.1% of its stock built between 2001 and 2010 and another 12.3% since 2011 (all calculated from table FY033A).
Across the four authorities, 70.7% of Dublin’s occupied homes were built before 2001 (calculated). Each era carries its own maintenance profile: lime plaster, sash windows and breathable paints in the pre-1919 city, cavity walls and timber fascias in the mid-century suburbs, and first full repaints now falling due across Fingal’s 2000s estates.
How Many Homes Stand Empty
The CSO now measures vacancy two ways. The census count, which includes homes empty on one night for any reason, put vacancy at 163,433 dwellings, or 7.7%, in April 2022 (table F2095). The stricter electricity-based series, which flags dwellings with almost no power use over a full quarter, counted 70,149 vacant dwellings in the fourth quarter of 2024, a rate of 3.2% (CSO table VAC12).
By county, the electricity measure runs from 7.8% in Leitrim, 6.3% in Donegal, 6.0% in Mayo and 5.6% in Roscommon down to 1.4% in Kildare, 1.1% in Fingal and 0.9% in South Dublin, the lowest in the State. Dublin City sits at 2.6%, with 5,670 vacant dwellings out of a stock of 217,270 residential connections (CSO table VAC14, Q4 2024). Bringing a long-vacant home back into use almost always means full redecoration, so the vacancy map is also a map of future refurbishment work.
When these homes change hands, the market they sell into, 61,550 sales worth €26.6 billion in the year to June 2026, with a median price of €399,949, is set out in our Irish property market statistics.
Who Owns the Stock
Ownership shapes how the stock is maintained, because owners rather than tenants commission most repair and decorating work. Census 2022 recorded 1,210,925 owner-occupied households, 65.9% of the total: 531,207 own with a mortgage and 679,718 own outright. A further 330,632 households, 18.0%, rent from a private landlord, 153,192 rent from a local authority and 29,880 from a voluntary body (CSO Census 2022, table FY034A; shares calculated).
Ownership is oldest where the stock is oldest. Among the 400,354 occupied homes built before 1961, 205,473, or 51.3%, are owned outright with no mortgage (calculated from table FY034A). Many of those homes are held by older owners on fixed incomes, which is one reason grant-supported energy upgrades, rather than private renovation budgets, are doing a growing share of the work on the pre-1960s stock.
What BER Data Says About the Condition of the Stock
Building Energy Ratings are the closest thing Ireland has to a condition survey of its homes. By the second quarter of 2026, 1,367,605 dwellings had been BER-assessed, equal to 64.8% of the total stock (calculated), including 414,672 in Dublin (CSO Domestic Building Energy Ratings, table EBQ02).
Of the assessed homes, 252,834 (18.5%) hold an A rating and 239,659 (17.5%) a B, so 36.0% are rated A or B. The largest single band is C, covering 419,257 homes or 30.7%. At the other end, 224,158 homes (16.4%) are rated D and 228,691 (16.7%) are rated E, F or G (all shares calculated from table EBQ02). Age is the dividing line: among assessed homes built before 1950, 55.3% are rated E, F or G and only 11.1% reach A or B, while homes built between 1978 and 1999 show 12.2% at E or worse (calculated).
The retrofit technologies are spreading through the assessed stock: 196,463 BER-assessed dwellings, or 14.4%, now have a heat pump and 216,174, or 15.8%, have solar panels (calculated from table EBQ02, dwellings with the technology alone or combined).
What the Stock Means for Repair and Decorating
An old, house-heavy stock generates steady repair and decorating demand. Eurostat’s housing condition indicator puts 21.2% of the Irish population in a dwelling with a leaking roof, damp walls or rot in window frames or floors, against an EU average of 15.6%; the renovation spending, planning permissions and price data that follow from that are collected in our home renovation statistics for Ireland. The workforce that maintains the stock is thin, with one painter or decorator for every 224 occupied homes, and the trade’s pay, age profile and apprentice pipeline are set out in our painting and decorating trade statistics.
The new stock adds demand of its own. The 36,215 homes completed in 2025 will reach their first full internal repaint around the end of this decade, just as the 450,817 homes built between 2001 and 2010 move through their second and third redecoration cycles. Between the ageing majority and the growing new-build tail, the stock generates more decorating work each year than the trade behind it is currently replacing.
Method and Sources
All figures on this page were checked at source in August 2026. Dwelling counts, occupancy, dwelling types and year built are from CSO Census 2022 tables F2095 and FY033A, with county age and type shares calculated by OS Decor from table FY033A. New dwelling completions are from CSO table NDQ01 (second quarter 2026, published July 2026). Vacancy figures are from the CSO’s electricity-based series, tables VAC12 (national) and VAC14 (local authority), fourth quarter 2024, published March 2026. Building Energy Rating figures are from CSO table EBQ02, second quarter 2026, published 27 August 2026, and all BER shares are calculated from that table. The house-versus-flat comparison is Eurostat indicator ilc_lvho01 (2025) and the housing condition figure is Eurostat ilc_mdho01 (2023). Where a share or ratio is described as calculated, it was derived from the named table and the working is available on request. The page will be refreshed after each quarterly BER and completions release, the next vacancy update in March 2027, and Census 2027 housing results.
How OS Decor Helps
OS Decor paints and restores the homes these figures describe, from pre-1919 Dublin terraces to the newer estates of the commuter belt. If your house is part of the older stock, our exterior house painting team handles weathered render, masonry and joinery, and we work across the newest-stock counties through our Kildare, Meath and Wicklow teams. Contact us for a written quote.
