Dublin population growth two and half times faster than thought

Dublin People 02 Oct 2015
PHOTO: Darren Kinsella

NEW CSO data shows that population growth in Dublin is running two and a half times faster than previously thought, with 32,000 extra people now living in the city compared with 2014.

Until recently, official statistics indicated that Dublin was edging up by less than one per cent a year.

According to Savills Ireland, the rapid increase in Dublin’s population has largely gone unnoticed but has profound implications for the city’s housing shortage. 

Dr John McCartney, Director of Research at Savills Ireland, believes the rapid surge in Dublin’s population has not received the attention it deserves. 

 “An additional 32,000 people arriving in the city every year will impact significantly on essential services such as transport, schools and healthcare,” he said.

Most of all, Mr McCartney fears it will exacerbate the current housing shortage.

He added: “We estimate that this acceleration will raise the annual building requirement from around 6,000 residential units per year to almost 13,000. We are only on course to deliver 2,800 units this year and the prospects for 2016 are not much better. 

“Ultimately, this means that an already tight market is going to get tighter still.”

While McCartney noted that the housing market has slowed considerably and is likely to remain flat until next spring, he warned that this growing imbalance between demand and supply is building up pressure on rents and prices.

 The effect of population growth on Dublin’s retail sector was highlighted in a recent report from Savills and the ESRI which showed that a 1 per cent increase in Dublin’s population leads to a 1.25 per cent rise in the overall retail rents index within two years.

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