Planning Permissions and Housing Supply

This note utilises Local Authority planning application data from 2012 to 2022 to examine planning refusal rates, decision timing and appeals. It discusses factors identified in the housing literature that could explain the increase in the number of planning permissions for apartments that have yet to commence.

Larger developments, as well as developments in counties with large urban centres and in the Greater Dublin Area, tend to have higher rates of refusal, longer decision times, and higher rates of appeals.

Low planning activation rates could arise from land banking, viability constraints from rising construction costs, and speculation in the land market whereby planning permission is utilised as a means to increase the value of a site.