A 40% reduction in one-off housing was one of the main drivers behind the fall in construction commencements in the first half of 2015, according to the National Housing Construction Index from Link2Plans.
The introduction of new building regulations in March 2014 also caused a spike in projects around that time, which resulted in an anomaly in the numbers, Link2Plans said.
Commencements fell by 26% nationally in the first half of 2015 compared to same time last year, with every county apart from Wicklow, recording a fall in the number of project commencements.
But applications saw strong growth for the first six months of the year when compared to 2014, with a 14% increase and every county except Dublin recording a rise.
Leitrim, Laois and Westmeath were the best performing counties for planning applications, recording growth of 74%, 66% and 48% respectively.
Offaly (+43%), Louth (+43%), Donegal (+35%) and Longford (+32%) also returned significant increases while Dublin (-5%) was the only county to record a fall in the number of planning applications.
