Valentine’s Day saw the publication of the Irish quarterly retail market report by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), which noted 11 price increases over the course of 2018. It is an opportune time to consider a potential source of future competition: new residential dwellings.
This week’s blog looks at the rate of new house completions in Ireland and the likely implications for domestic switching rates in the retail market. As the chart illustrates, since the start of 2017 an average of about 850 homes are registered for the first time every month, according to figures compiled by ESB Networks. The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government use the ESB new registrations figures as a metric for the number of new houses being built.
