The number of new homes granted planning permission this year has grown massively in Galway city, but plummeted in the county.
CSO figures available for the first three quarters of 2018 show that from January to September, planning permission was obtained for 803 new housing units in the city.
That’s a massive increase on just 149 homes which got the go ahead from planning authorities over the same period last year.
But the news for construction out in the county was less productive this year, with a massive drop in the number of units getting planning permission in Q1 – Q3 this year.
In the first three quarters of this year 181 homes were granted planning permission in Galway county, down nearly two thirds from 538 units in 2017.
Galway has been going through a massive housing crisis in recent years, with the amount of housing simply not keeping pace with population needs, and prices going through the roof.
In Galway county there has been a significant shift in the nature of housing developments which are receiving planning permission in the past year.
In this period in 2017, permission was granted for 175 houses which were part of multi-unit developments, but 321 one-off houses got the go ahead from the county council.
This year saw a shift in ratio as of the houses which received planning permission, 98 were part of multi-unit projects and just 24 were one-off developments.
There is also a growing number of apartments being built in the county, with 59 getting approval this year compared with 28 in 2017.
In the city more focus has been put on developments with a larger number of units.
The city council gave approval for 411 houses in multi-unit developments and 61 apartments in the first three quarters of this year, compared with 331 one-off houses.
The number of apartments which have received the go ahead in the city in the first nine months of this year is nearly triple the 21 which got approval in 2017.
