Planning permissions were granted for 13,842 homes in the first nine months of this year, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
This marked an increase of 14.9% compared to the same time last year when the figure had stood at 12,046 units.
The CSO said that planning permissions granted for new housing units increased by 20.7% in the first three quarters of 2017 compared to the same time last year.
The number of permissions granted for apartment units decreased by 4.1%, the CSO added.
However, the number of planning permissions for houses approved in the third quarter of this year fell by 13.7% to 3,764 from 4,362 in the third quarter of 2016.
Planning permissions were granted for 975 apartment units, compared with 1,452 units for the same period in 2016, a decrease of 32.9%.
The CSO noted that one-off houses accounted for 29.2% of all new dwelling units granted planning permission in the three months from July to September.
