New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that non-household entities bought a total of 12,201 homes at market prices last year, a decrease of 9.8% on the 13,522 purchases made by this group in 2022.
Non-household entities are private companies, charitable organisations and state institutions.
The CSO said the total value of the purchases by non-household entities in 2023 was €4.2 billion, a fall of 8.3% on the 2022 value of €4.6 billion.
Today’s figures show that Irish registered companies and institutions accounted for 92.9% of the €4.2 billion spent on purchases of homes by non-household entities last year.
The rest were purchases made by non-household entities with a registered address outside Ireland.
According to the CSO, of the 12,201 purchases of homes by non-households in 2023, 6,438 were purchases of houses. It added that 2,797, or 43.4%, of these were purchases of new houses.
The remaining deals were for existing houses, of which there were 3,641 (56.6%) in 2023.
Of the 5,763 apartments purchased by non-households in 2023, 3,642 (63.2%) were purchases of new apartments, while the remaining deals were of existing apartments, of which there were 2,121 (36.8%).
Meanwhile, non-household entities sold 19,061 dwellings at market prices last year, down 7.8% on the 20,671 dwellings sold by them in 2022.
The total value of these sales in 2023 amounted to €7.5 billion, down 1.1% on the 2022 value of €7.6 billion