Housebuilders Cairn Homes and Glenveagh Properties accounted for 15% of housing output in the Irish market between 2019 and 2023, a new analysis has found.
According to the homebuilding census by Goodbody Analytics, Cairn commenced work on 7,400 residential properties during that time.
Glenveagh also began work on a further 6,600 homes.
Last year, Cairn started development on 2,190 the analysis found, which represented 8.1% of the total market, excluding one-off houses.
Glenveagh began work on 1,850 units in 2023, which was 6.8% of the total commencements during the year.
Overall, Goodbody Analytics identified 434 builders and 49 contractors who were responsible for the 110,000 commencement notices lodged during the period.
The authors said builders or contractors were behind 92% of these units.
The study found that contractors were particularly prevalent in apartment building.
This meant that contractors, who were not named in the study, were the next three largest providers of homes during the 2019 to 2023 period.
"Efficient production of apartments is particularly important over the coming years in Ireland given the imperative of compact growth amid a growing population and a fall in the average size of households," the authors said.
The research also identifies a distinct lack of homebuilders who build at scale in Ireland.
Last year the top ten home builders accounted for just under a third of the total number of new homes that work began on.
That compares to 42% in the UK.
When contractors are excluded from the data, the top ten homebuilders were found to have been responsible for just 21% of the total volume of homes commenced in Ireland in 2023.
According to the authors the lack of scale threatens the likelihood that Ireland's housing requirements over the coming years will be met.
