Official figures show that there was a sharp drop in the number of planning permissions granted for new homes last year.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said that 34,177 units were approved last year – a drop of more than 20% compared with 2021.

A slump in the number of new apartments given planning permission was the main factor in the overall drop.

The number of houses approved rose by 4.4% to 17,454, but apartment permissions fell by 36% to 16,723.

Housing approvals fell in Q4

The number of multi-development houses approved was up 14% compared with 2021, but one-off houses were down 8%.

The four Dublin local authorities accounted for almost two-thirds of the apartments that received planning permission last year. Cork, however, had the largest number of houses (2,495).

Figures for the final three months of 2022 show an annual drop of 44% in the number of homes approved, to 7,597.

Permissions for houses were down 28% compared with the same period in 2021, while the figure for apartments dropped by 54%.