Business group Limerick Chamber has raised concerns over a sharp fall in housing completions across the county, falling 13% over the course of 2025, while other counties with major cities saw their completion numbers increase significantly.
According to the latest data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), during 2025, there were 872 housing completions across Limerick, down 13% from 1,003 the previous year.
This stands in contrast to the 26% increase in housing completions in Dublin, the 20% increase in Galway, and the 5% increase in Cork. Waterford also recorded a decline but it was a modest drop of 2.3%. Nationally, housing completions increased over 20% year-on-year.
Limerick Chamber said the county’s downward trend “represents a growing structural risk”, with the Irish economy continuing to expand and regional cities compete for investment and skills.
The chief economist at Limerick Chamber, Sean Golden, said the figures are “deeply alarming”, showing the “long running trend of under delivery of housing in Limerick”.
“Without urgent and targeted action, Limerick will simply not be able to house its workforce, sustain inward investment, or meet the basic needs of a growing population,” he said.
Mr Golden said there needs to be more targeted intervention from the State for both the direct build of housing and in policy support for the delivery of housing in Limerick.
“The Land Development Agency (LDA) have a direct delivery pipeline of over 1,300 homes across Colbert Quarter, the Gasworks, and Mungret, with almost over 450 of those receiving a positive planning permission grant, but to date none have been delivered,” he said.
“We do note the positive impact the LDA can have, having delivered 81 cost rental homes in Castletroy, but other developments need to be delivered much quicker and at a larger scale.”
Limerick Chamber said that the county needs between 2,500 to 4,000 homes being built a year.
“Limerick has experienced strong population growth, record employment, and increasing foreign direct investment in recent years. However, the failure to deliver sufficient housing now risks undermining those gains,” Mr Golden said.
There was also a decline in housing commencements during 2025 with 874 recorded, down from 1,532 in 2024. However, 2024 commencement numbers across the country are skewed by a late surge in activity by developers who wanted to get projects started in order to avail of development levy waivers which were due to end.
In 2023, there were 795 commencements recorded across Limerick.
Mr Golden said that, while the mayor of Limerick has recently announced that he will be asking for cross-party collaboration to support an independent enquiry into housing delivery in Limerick, it must be “undertaken quickly as there is no time to waste”.
