These guidelines were originally issued in 2018, as an update of the Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for New Apartments guidelines, published in 2015. This 2020 update relates to ‘Shared Accommodation’/’Co-living’ as detailed in Section 5.0.

The purpose of the 2015 apartment guidance was to reiterate ministerial guidance, setting out standards for apartment development, mainly in response to circumstances that had arisen whereby some local authority standards were at odds with national guidance.

The 2018 Guidelines built on the content of the 2015 apartment guidance, much of which remains valid, particularly with regard to design quality safeguards such as internal space standards for 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments, floor-to-ceiling height, internal storage, and amenity space.

The 2018 Guidelines also updated previous guidance in the context of greater evidence and knowledge of current and likely future housing demand in Ireland taking into account the Housing Agency National Statement on Housing Demand and Supply, the Government’s action program on housing and homelessness Rebuilding Ireland and Project Ireland 2040 and the National Planning Framework