The number of new homes built in Ireland last year increased by 10% from 2022 to 32,695, Central Statistics Office data showed on Thursday.

Ireland's central bank had been forecasting the completion of around 30,000 units, with 31,000 expected for 2024, and 31,500 for 2025.

In a Housing Market Bulletin from December, analysts at Allied Irish Banks wrote that Ireland's economy needed at least 30,000 new units per annum to meet the demands of a fast-growing population, and significantly more to meet pent-up demand that has been accumulating for more than a decade.

Based on stronger that expected census data from 2022, they estimated a shortfall of around 20,000 units in the period 2017-2021.

Last year's increase in housing output had been helping to moderate house price inflation, but house price growth picked up for the third successive month in November to stand at 2.9% year-on-year, according to official data published on Wednesday.

Year-on-year price growth had cooled from a recent peak of 15.1% in February 2022 to a near three-year low of 1.1% last August. (Reporting by Graham Fahy; Editing by Alex Richardson)