In this article we cover:

  • Drop in commencements
  • What supports were in place and why they were axed

Commencement notices for ROI one-off houses dropped sharply in 2025, as the ROI government tells Selfbuild it has no plans of reinstating supports.

The figures are the lowest in 10 years, showing more than a halving in commencement notices since the start of the year.

There were 60 per cent less commencement notices filed for one-off houses from January to May 2025 (1,286) as compared to the same period the previous year (3,212). On average the figures to date for 2025 represent a 30 to 40 per cent drop over the past decade.

In 2024, the waiver to pay local authority development contributions (Section 48) and Irish Water connection fees, (€6k between water and wastewater connection charges), led to a sharp rise in the number of commencements.   

The waiver saved self-builders thousands of euros on development contributions alone.

However, despite a petition to extend the waiver indefinitely for self-builders, which has over 2,500 signatures, and ample evidence for the need to provide supports to self-builders, the Department of Housing told Selfbuild: “At this time, it is not proposed to extend the terms or timeline of the scheme beyond those as approved by the Government in its Decision of 23rd April 2024.”

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien had indicated in 2024 that if the coalition government were to be re-elected, there would be scope to consider reinstating the waivers.

However, in its letter the Department told Selfbuild: “The temporary measures were always intended to be time-bound and this waiver has had the desired effect to deliver more housing.”

This comes at a time when Minister Browne indicated that the government’s own target of delivering 41,000 homes wasn’t realistic.

The Central Bank’s quarterly economic report had to revise housing completions downwards, 32,500, 37,500 and 41,500 in 2025, 2026 and 2027, respectively.

The main support available to self-builders now is the Help to Buy scheme which is open to anyone buying a new house or building one.