Annual Total Cost of Development Study

The Annual Total Development Cost Study for 2026 will build on the 2025 Insights into Total Development Costs Study, and will be similarly formatted to the 2024 and 2025 reports. The 2026 study will provide comprehensive analysis of the total cost of residential development across various locations in Ireland, updated with Q1 2026 construction costs. It will focus on five regional areas provisionally: Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and the North West, and five typologies (See methodology) based on the Standardised Design Approaches study.

The study will perform a comparative assessment using urban and regional costs across the five selected locations, highlighting differences in land prices, service infrastructure, and labour availability in the regions. These insights will offer a regional view on the factors influencing development costs. The study will further refine its cost analysis findings by modelling alternative scenarios for financing, land acquisition and development firm models.

By providing annual updates and a clear regional perspective, the study will establish a benchmark for residential development costs in Ireland that can contribute to policy and industry practices toward more affordable delivery of housing. Further to this, a detailed analysis will be included of materials and finishes, which will evaluate their impact on construction costs, while considering quality and durability. This assessment will compare traditional construction methods with modern methods of construction to identify cost efficiencies and potential savings.

Part of this study is the evaluation of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). The study will carry out a comparison of the cost of construction for one typical house and one apartment building in one location. The comparison will use a typical category 1 panelised system and a selected category 2 volumetric system for each building.

The study will also identify the cost reduction opportunities available with bathroom pods. Any other significant cost reduction from standardised components should also be identified. The study will consider costs in regards to four different methods of construction for one house typology.

The methods of timber in construction, insulated concrete formwork, light gauge steel and standard concrete must be used in the types of buildings analysed. The report should outline the benefits of using MMC with a specific focus on improving efficiency and increasing scale in the construction of these types of buildings. This study will perform an Economies of Scale Analysis, whereby it will carry out a comparison of the cost of delivery for the 3 Bed Semi D and an apartment when delivered by a Public Limited Company (PLC), a medium size builder and a small builder for one location such as the Greater Dublin Area.

As an additional feature, this study will incorporate opportunity costs by examining the economic value of alternative uses of land, capital, labour, and time, including the impacts of delayed delivery and underutilised capital over longer construction periods. This study will also allow for the analysis of opportunity costs associated with Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) by adding a value to the build time and the reduction of time in terms of savings; it will analyse the effect of this on the overall cost and efficiency of housing delivery.