New figures show there was a 75.2% increase in apartments completed in the first quarter of this year.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) says there were 4,986 new dwelling completions in the first quarter - compared with 4,254 in the same period last year.

That is an increase of 17.2%.

The number of apartments completed in this quarter, compared with the same quarter in 2019, rose from 596 to 1,044.

The majority of new home completions were also in urban areas.

The ESB domestic connections dataset shows 81.3% of new completions were urban - with 18.7% being in rural areas.

While over 80% of apartment completions were in the capital.

A view of Dublin city centre from the River Liffey | Image: Christian Charisius/DPA/PA Images

This was followed by 1,047 in the mid-east, to make 54.2% of all completions in these two regions combined.

The next highest region was the south-west where there were 682 completions.

All regions except the mid-east, where there was a small decrease, had an increase in completions.

Of the 1,044 apartments completed this quarter, 80.2% were in Dublin with 59.7% in Dublin city alone.

Of all completions in the capital, 50.5% were apartments. In Dublin city this proportion rises to 91.1%.

The area of Dublin 13 saw the most new completions in the first quarter, based on Eircode.

Source: CSO

Dublin 13 had 296 completions followed by Naas with 187 and Galway on 138.

Most of the rest of the top 10 were in Dublin and its commuter belt - except the southside of Cork and Limerick, which both had 121 completions.

There were nine local authorities with 100 or more new scheme dwellings.

These were Cork City, Cork County, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Fingal, Galway County, Kildare, Meath, South Dublin and Wicklow.

The highest number was in Fingal (309) followed by Kildare (300).

South Dublin had the highest proportion of scheme dwelling completions at 93.6%.

Cork County (140) was the only one with over 100 single dwellings completed.

At a regional level, the west (208) had the most single dwellings.

While the number of previously finished dwellings in unfinished housing developments continued to fall.

It decreased 39.1% from 174 in 2019 to 106 in 2020.

This is the lowest this has been since the series began, and represents a drop of 85.2% from the peak in 2014.

Main image: People enjoying sunshine on their balconies in an apartment building on Grand Canal Dock, Dublin. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie