142 new housing units were commenced in the first four months of 2012 in Cork, according to new statistics released by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). This represents a drop of 33 units or 19% on the same period during 2011, when work began on 175 new units, according to the CIF’s latest Housing Statistics Bulletin.
Of the new units commenced 130 were single units, representing 92% of the total activity. 135 of the new housing units were commenced in the Cork County area, while 7 commenced in Cork City.
For the twelve month period up to the end of April of this year, 446 housing units were commenced in Cork. This compares with 605 commenced in the twelve months up to April 2011, a year on year decrease of 159 units or 26%. In Cork County 425 units were commenced in the twelve months to April 2012, while 21 were commenced in Cork City.
There was also a decline in the level of house completions in Cork during the first five months of 2012. Between January and May of this year 478 housing units were completed. This compares with 615 during the same period in 2011, a drop of 137 or 22%.
392 of the houses completed were in Cork County, with the remaining 86 in Cork City. This compares to 562 units being completed in Cork County during the same period in 2011 and 53 in Cork City.
Nationally the level of new house completions is down for the first five months with 3,283 housing units completed compared to 4,442 during the January to May period for 2011 – a drop of 1,160 units or 26%.
There has also been a sharp decrease in the number of houses commenced nationally with the statistics revealing a drop of 31% as 1,212 new housing units were commenced between January and April compared to 1,751 for the same timeframe in 2011.
A total of 10,480 housing units were completed during 2011. The CIF has predicted that between 7,500 – 8,000 units will be completed during 2012.