Ireland’s apartment standards: what has changed, and what has not

This is an editorial from BPS Planning, issued for discussion only.

On 4 November 2026 the Minister for Housing, James Browne, and the Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, John Cummins, issued the Planning Design Standards for Apartments as a National Planning Statement under section 25 of the Planning and Development Act 2024. It is easy to read this as a new set of rules, but there have been two separate events. The substantive cuts and relaxations to apartment design standards were made in July 2025. What changed this month is the legal vehicle carrying those standards, and the point in the process at which they bite.

What happened in July 2025

The Design Standards for Apartments, Guidelines for Planning Authorities were issued on 8 July 2025 under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. They replaced the Sustainable Urban Housing guidelines last updated in December 2022, with a July 2023 amendment on Build-to-Rent transition. The stated aim was to protect quality while improving the viability of apartment delivery, long identified by the Department as a weak point in housing supply.

The changes were real ones. The minimum studio fell from 37 square metres to 32, partly, the Department said, because the old studio was only 8 square metres smaller than a one-bedroom unit.

A new unit type was added: a three-bedroom, four-person apartment of 76 square metres. The full set of minimum floor areas is now: studio 32 square metres; one bedroom (two persons) 45; two bedroom (three persons) 63; two bedroom (four persons) 73; three bedroom (four persons) 76; and three bedroom (five persons) 90. Development plans may not set higher minimums.

Controls on unit mix were removed. Under the 2022 guidelines, a scheme could include up to 50 per cent one-bedroom or studio units, with studios limited to between 20 and 25 per cent of the total, and two-bedroom, three-person units were capped at 10 per cent of a private development. Since 2025 there has been no minimum or maximum for any bedroom number, and development plans cannot restrict mix, except for social housing, Part V housing and housing for older persons, where a mix may be required, for example on foot of a Housing Need and Demand Assessment.

The dual aspect requirement was reduced. The old position was a minimum of 33 per cent dual aspect units in more central and accessible locations and generally 50 per cent in suburban or intermediate locations. That became a single minimum of 25 per cent, with an emphasis on the larger units being the dual aspect ones where feasible. For refurbishment schemes on sites of any size and urban infill sites of up to 0.25 hectares, the planning authority may accept less, case by case, subject to overall design quality. The standard concerns the aspect of units; it is not a rule about the number of windows.

The cap of 12 apartments per floor per core was removed, and plans may no longer set any units-per-core requirement. That is a planning change only: accessibility and fire safety under the Building Regulations still govern cores.

The share of units that must be larger than the minimum was cut. The 2022 guidelines required the majority of apartments in a scheme of 10 or more units to exceed the minimum floor area by at least 10 per cent. In 2025 this became at least 25 per cent.

Finally, a planning authority may accept reduced provision of balconies where high quality, usable communal open space is provided and the amenity value of a balcony would be negligible, for example on units facing major sources of noise and air pollution, or on taller façades exposed to high wind. Even then, the number of units without direct access to private amenity space should not exceed 50 per cent. This is a discretion, not an entitlement to omit balconies.

What the November 2026 statement changes

The new National Planning Statement carries those standards forward with the same numbers. What has changed is their legal footing.

The 2025 document contained Specific Planning Policy Requirements under section 28 of the 2000 Act. The new statement is in two parts. Its eight National Planning Policies and Measures, NPPM 1 to NPPM 8, cover apartment mix, floor areas, dual aspect, ground floor ceiling heights, lift and stair cores, communal, community and cultural facilities, co-living and student accommodation. Regional strategies and development plans must be "materially consistent" with these. The remainder is National Planning Policy Guidance, which plans must "take due account of". That includes the recommended storage, amenity space and room dimension tables. A recommended minimum in an appendix should not be treated as if it were a measure.

Within two months, each planning authority and regional assembly must report to the Office of the Planning Regulator on whether its plan is materially consistent with the measures, and set out how any inconsistency will be removed.

There is one notable softening in wording. The 2025 guidelines said at least 25 per cent of units "shall" exceed the minimum floor area by 10 per cent. The statement says they "should". The expectation does not apply to schemes of fewer than ten units, to refurbishment schemes, or to urban infill on sites up to 0.25 hectares, and for schemes of 10 to 49 units it may be reduced or removed case by case.

Timing: decision date, not lodgement date

The most practical change concerns which applications are caught. In July 2025, Departmental Circular NSP 04/2025 said the 2025 guidelines applied to applications submitted from 9 July 2025, and that files already in the system would be decided under the earlier guidelines. The new statement takes the opposite approach. It applies to any application for planning permission, and to any appeal or direct application to An Coimisiún Pleanála, determined after 4 November 2026. A scheme lodged in September and still awaiting a decision is therefore assessed against the statement.

How the statement will interact with development plans once Part 4 of the 2024 Act commences is untested. Until plans are brought into line, it is prudent to identify any conflicting local standard rather than assume it falls away.

What has not changed

A good deal has been retained. The minimum ground floor ceiling height remains 2.7 metres, and plans may not require more. Above ground floor the statement refers to the 2.4 metres generally suggested in Technical Guidance Document F. For refurbishment and small urban infill schemes, the 2.7 metre figure may be relaxed case by case.

The recommended storage and amenity space figures are unchanged: storage of 3, 3, 5, 6, 6 and 9 square metres across the six unit types, from studio to the five-person three-bed, and private amenity space of 4, 5, 6, 7, 7 and 9 square metres, with communal amenity space recommended at the same figures. These sit in the guidance, with discretion for refurbishment and infill schemes.

Car and bicycle parking are not set by the statement. Both are referred to the Sustainable Residential Development and Compact Settlement Guidelines 2024, with car parking to be minimised, substantially reduced or wholly eliminated in well-served locations.

Communal, community and cultural facilities may only be required in locations identified in the development plan, not on a blanket threshold basis. The presumption against co-living continues unless a planning authority has identified specific demand through a Housing Need and Demand Assessment. Student accommodation now has its own chapter and measure, but the standards themselves, including study bedrooms of 8 square metres without an en-suite and 11.5 square metres with one, were already in the 2025 guidelines.

The legal challenge

The 2025 guidelines were the subject of judicial review proceedings, and questions were referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Those proceedings are ongoing. The Ministers have said the statement is issued "strictly without prejudice" to them, and it was accompanied by a precautionary strategic environmental assessment. Issuing the statement does not end the case or answer the questions referred.

What this means in practice

For applicants, check the decision date of any live file. Applications should show plainly how each measure is met: unit mix, the area of every unit, which units exceed the minimum by 10 per cent, aspect, storage and amenity space. Where the design relies on the discretion available for refurbishment, small infill sites or reduced balconies, the design case should be made rather than assumed, because these are judgements for the planning authority and An Coimisiún Pleanála, not automatic entitlements.

For planning authorities, the immediate job is the consistency report to the Office of the Planning Regulator.

Smaller minimums are minimums, not targets. Viability is a legitimate aim, but lower standards do not guarantee lower prices for buyers or renters, and the homes being permitted now will be lived in for decades. The schemes that serve their residents well will be those that use the new flexibility carefully: larger units where families are likely to live, real daylight, generous storage, and communal space that people actually use.

Sources

Planning Design Standards for Apartments National Planning Statement, 2026 (final, PDF) (https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/06ccfd53/1._Planning_Design_Standards_for_Apartments_NPS_Final.pdf)

Design Standards for Apartments, Guidelines for Planning Authorities, 2025 (PDF) (https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/Planning_Design_Standards_for_Apartments_080725_FINAL.pdf)

Circular NSP 04/2025, transitional arrangements (PDF) (https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/Apartment_Guidelines_Circular_NSP_04.pdf)

Sustainable Urban Housing (Design Standards for New Apartments, 2022 (PDF): https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/sustainable-urban-housing-design-standards-for-new-apartments-guidelines-for-planning-.pdf)

Department of Housing press release, 4 November 2026 (https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/press-releases/national-planning-statement-on-apartment-standards-issued-by-minister-browne-and-minister-of-state-john-cummins/)