More than 40,000 homes were granted planning permission in 2019.
That marks a 38% increase on the previous year, according to the latest CSO figures.
For the first time ever, more apartments were granted planning permission than houses.
Over 20,000 apartments were given the green light in 2019, an increase of 125% on the year before.
This number is still lower than in 2004 when the number of apartments granted permission peaked at over 32,000.
Planning permission for houses dropped by 1.5% in 2019 from 19,964 to 19,670.
This is the first year that those numbers dropped since 2012.