Offaly sees largest fall in planning applications – National Housing Construction Index
The latest edition of the National Housing Construction Index compiled and issued by Link2Plans (www.link2plans.com) has shown that planning applications in Offaly have had the largest decrease compared to every other county in Ireland and commencement notices have also fallen.
The team of researchers at www.link2plans.com have examined every housing construction planning application and planning commencement from January to February 2013, in the production of the National Housing Construction Index. The Index gives a direct comparison with the exact same period in 2012.
The Index shows that from January to February there was a 13% drop in planning applications in Offaly. The last Index showed a 21% drop in planning applications giving signs of a slow down. Commencement notices show a slight decrease of 2%. This is more positive than the last Index where there was a decrease in commencements of 1%.
According to Managing Director of Link2Plans, Danny O’Shea, “this volume of the National Construction Index shows that there has been a slow down in the rate of decline in planning applications and commencements. This is a trend that we saw in previous volumes of our Index”. Looking back at the national trend for January to February 2013, the numbers show that while commencements are down 14%, five counties all saw an increase with Roscommon, Mayo, Monaghan, Dublin and Wicklow all seeing commencements up on 2012. Also, while the last index reported a growing number of planning applications in one county only (Donegal), the latest figures show a marked increase in eleven countries with Roscommon (65%), Leitrim (67%) and Monaghan (75%) showing the biggest rise.
“If these trends continue into the rest of 2013, we could expect to see numbers potentially rising in the first half of this year which is potentially very positive news for the sector as a whole.”
Nationally planning applications are down 3% and commencement notices are down 14%.
