Unfinished Housing Figures Face Oireachtas Scrutiny Over ESB Connections
Unfinished residential properties are being counted in official housing completion statistics, which risks distorting the property market, an Oireachtas committee will hear. Lorcan Sirr, a senior lecturer at TU Dublin’s School of Surveying and Construction Innovation, is set to inform the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing that these calculations result in gross overcounting.
In 2016, Sirr told the same committee that annual housing completions were inflated by 58% over a six-year period. Investigations revealed that automated ESB grid connections were logging milking parlours, workshops, garden sheds, and vacant properties returning to use as brand-new dwellings.
Methodology Revisions and Grid Connection Realities
While the Central Statistics Office has refined its methodology since 2016 to improve accuracy, it continues to pull data from ESB connections. However, Sirr argues that connecting a property to the ESB network occurs far in advance of actual construction completion. Concrete shells lacking flooring, kitchens, bathrooms, or plastered walls enter the official completion metrics once they have power.
Cormac Halpin, a senior statistician at the CSO, is scheduled to address the committee regarding these discrepancies. Halpin plans to explain that one potential reason for discrepancies in housing numbers involves multi-unit developments, particularly apartment blocks, being recorded as a single unit. Despite these challenges, the CSO maintains that ESB connection data is the best available source for statistics relating to new dwelling completions.
Proposed Reforms for The Building Control Management System
As a solution to measurement errors, Sirr suggests connecting the Residential Tenancies Board’s Rent Index and the CSO’s Residential Property Price Index with the Certificates of Compliance on Completion found within local authority planning systems. Because people can currently opt out of the certificate, some data isn’t collected. Making it mandatory would add between €3,000 and €5,000 to the cost of a new home.
The Building Control Management System currently suffers from a lack of a consistent method of data collection because information for each development is entered by assigned certifiers or builders and verified by each local authority. Sirr states that the system needs to be reformed to ensure the same information is recorded in the same format across all 31 local authorities. These recommendations are not criticisms of the CSO or the operators of the BCMS, according to Sirr.
Did you know about ESB connection criteria?
Properties connected to the electricity grid are counted as completed homes even if they are concrete shells with no flooring, kitchens, bathrooms or plastered walls.
Frequently Asked Questions About Housing Completions
Why does connection to the ESB grid distort housing completion figures?
New buildings are connected to an electricity supply far in advance of completion, meaning unfinished concrete shells without bathrooms or kitchens are included in the figures for new homes once they have power.
What did Lorcan Sirr reveal about housing data in 2016?
Sirr informed the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing that annual completions were inflated by 58% over a six-year period because connections to the ESB grid included milking parlours, workshops, garden sheds, and vacant houses coming back into use.
How much would mandatory compliance certificates add to a new home?
Making Certificates of Compliance on Completion mandatory would add between €3,000 and €5,000 to the cost of a new home.
What is the Building Control Management System?
Architects, engineers, developers, builders, and property owners use this digital portal to file statutory building applications and notices online, including 7 Day Notices, Commencement Notices, and Certificates of Compliance on Completion.
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