There are lies, damn lies, statistics and, sometimes, just plain old errors or erroneous assumptions when assessing the output and activity in Ireland’s housing market. One of these was a claim in online news media that only 30 newly-built houses out of 1,499 new units had sold to private buyers in Cork in 2025: despite being clearly and intuitively wrong, the figure of 30 sales (just 3%) got widespread traction, ignited chat forum threads and debates. Cork’s spurious 30 sales (3%) to private buyers figures, which have yet to be officially corrected, compared dramatically to 38% for the greater Dublin area and up to and over 50% for the wider commuter belt counties, and compare markedly with 30% in Galway (120 out of 415) and 25% in Waterford. Nationally, first-time buyers purchased 7,544 new homes in the year to end December 2025, an increase of almost 24% year-on-year, according to the Department of Housing, indicating Cork’s first-time buyer and private buyer segment had to be in the many hundreds of units. The figure for a wider variety of new homes schemes into and across the county as well as in the expanded city would have meant hundreds more private sales, with another national agency, Savills, also reporting very strong sales in 2025, over 400 sales completions in Cork.

Source: Irish Examiner March 29, 2026 10:00 UTC