Europe now builds at roughly half the rate it managed at its 20th-century peak. In the decades after the war, Europe rebuilt shattered cities, rolled out motorways, electrified regions, and housed a booming population, often within timelines that would seem impossible in the modern era. Today Europe has largely forgotten how to build. This week brought evidence that Ireland, at least, is starting to remember, along with a sobering reminder of how far there is still to go.
New forecasts by EY Ireland for Euroconstruct, the network tracking construction across 19 European countries, make striking reading. Irish construction output grew by 11.7 per cent last year and is forecast to keep growing at over 5 per cent annually through 2028, making us Europe's fastest-growing construction market, alongside Poland, the UK and Portugal. Housing completions jumped more than 20 per cent in 2025 to 36,284 homes, the highest annual output since 2011, with forecasts of 40,000 this year, 43,000 in 2027 and 47,000 in 2028.
Now set that against the rest of the continent. Across the Euroconstruct network excluding Ireland, construction output is forecast to grow by just 2 per cent this year, weighed down by geopolitical uncertainty, energy costs and weak confidence. Europe broadly has stopped building, and the exceptions are the countries that stand out. Ireland is currently the clearest exception of all, helped by two advantages: demand strong enough to stimulate supply, and an exchequer position that lets the State put real money behind delivery in a way most European governments simply cannot.
The Government's strategy targets 300,000 new homes between 2025 and 2030. On the EY figures, roughly 166,000 will have been delivered by the end of 2028, which leaves over 133,000 homes to be built in the final two years, a pace no one credibly expects. EY's own analysts suggest output needs to climb above 60,000 homes a year to start clearing the historic shortfall. We are heading the right way, but at barely half the required speed, and the binding constraints are no longer money or demand. They are coordination: local authorities, water, the electricity grid, and the infrastructure that makes zoned land buildable. Galway knows that story better than most.
The report contains one genuine warning, and it concerns offices. Non-residential growth is slowing sharply, driven by a contracting office market that has split in two. Vacancy in new, sustainable, top-grade buildings is very low, while older, energy-poor stock is emptying out. For Galway city, that trend deserves attention. Our office stock skews older, and the gap between what modern employers want and what much of the city offers will widen. But within that problem sits an opportunity, underused, well-located commercial buildings are the raw material for residential conversion and living-city renewal provided the regulatory pathway is made workable.
What should readers take from this? If you are buying, the supply pipeline is finally real, but it will not overwhelm demand any time soon; if you own older commercial property in the city or county towns, start thinking now about its next use, because the market is already repricing it. And if you are watching from a policy seat, the lesson of Ireland's European outperformance is worth repeating: building is a habit. We lost it for over a decade. Having painfully regained it and finally remembered how to build, the task for Galway is to ensure that this time the habit sticks.
Johnny Gannon is the founder of Fair Deal Property, Auctioneers and Estate Agents, Galway. For advice on buying or selling, call 091 394593 or visit www.fairdealproperty.ie
