New housing statistics show a welcome rise in new social homes, but simply not enough to meet demand

In the past week, we have seen updated statistics on new dwellings and the quarterly household bulletin, revealing the landscape of the housing context in the first quarter of 2026.

In a positive development, there has been an uptick in completions and starts for houses under the Social Housing Development Programme (SHDP) for the financial year 2025/26. This has been publicly flagged by Minister for Communities Gordon Lyons in recent weeks, but it is welcome and much overdue. 1,538 homes were completed in 2025/26 under the SHDP, and building started on 1,765 homes, just shy of the annual target of 2,000 homes.

These positive trends must be viewed in the context of the ongoing wastewater infrastructure crisis. In response to a written Assembly question from Justin McNulty MLA, Minister Lyons last week noted that over 40% of planned social housing developments are facing potential delays due to lack of adequate wastewater infrastructure. To meet the Executive’s target of 5,850 new build social homes by next year, 2026/27 will need to see over 2,500 starts – a figure not reached since the 1988/89 financial year. Without more targeted investment to truly tackle this infrastructure quagmire, that figure looks impossible.

There are now 50,381 households on the social housing waiting list. Of these applicants, 39,008 households were in housing stress, and 33,412 households had full duty applicant status.

While more detailed information will be available in the next biannual Homelessness Bulletin in June, we can see that 4,224 households presented as homeless to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive during the first quarter of 2026, an increase of 4.5% on the same quarter in 2025.

Unfortunately, these figures are unsurprising as we have seen social housing allocations continue to drop, the private rental market constrict, and the cost of living markedly increase. The Local Housing Allowance still hasn’t been uplifted, leaving huge shortfalls for the lowest income households trying to access suitable private rented accommodation.  

The increase in social housing starts and completions must be welcomed, but these figures fall catastrophically short of what is needed to meet the growing demand and address the scale of our housing crisis.

The dogs in the street know we are in a complex and growing housing crisis in Northern Ireland, but we are seeing the same story repeatedly and without real and meaningful intervention. Every quarter we see the social housing waiting list expand, including more households in housing stress and with full duty applicant status. These statistics are real people just trying to get on with their lives, facing uncertainty, insecurity and in some cases, homelessness. We need more homes, we need them faster than ever, and we need to get serious about the wastewater infrastructure crisis.