In the first quarter of this year there were 4,650 planning permissions granted for dwelling units, an increase of 50.4 per cent on the same period in 2016.

Of the permissions granted, 896 were for apartment units, while the remainder were for apartments with one-off houses accounting for 27.4 per cent of all new dwelling units granted.

The total number of applications that were approved in the quarter was 5,959. That includes agricultural and industrial buildings.

According to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office the region with the most permissions granted was Dublin, with 1,403 permissions. The least significant was the midland region where 391 planning applications were approved.

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Across the country, 1,523 applications were permitted for new dwellings while 1,767 were granted for extensions.

While planning permissions figures are a barometer of the land market in Ireland, they're not necessarily a good measure of the housing market. According to the London School of Economics up to 40 per cent of planning permissions never translate into homes.