Plans have been unveiled for the building of almost 500 new homes in the city — with a major 362-home development proposed for Knocknacarra and smaller projects in the Renmore and Menlo areas.

Applications for planning permission for the three separate developments have been lodged with Galway City Council in the past week.

In summary they are as follows:

■ Knocknacarra — 362 residential units, a mix of apartments and house types on a 13-acre site between the Western Distributor Road and Kingston Road, with heights ranging from two to six storeys;

■ Renmore — 82 homes, including 57 apartments and 25 house, on a 4.3-acre site that is currently green fields, bordered by the Gleann Rua, Lurgan Park and Murrough housing estates;

■ Menlo — 48 apartments on a corner site at the junction of Coolough Road and Dyke Road, in close proximity to the sites of two major student accommodation complexes that have been approved.

Galway City Council is due to make a decision on all three individual applications for planning permission by early December.

The planning applications come in the wake of news that housing starts have plummeted in Galway this year — with both February and March passing without a single one in the city.

That’s according to the latest report from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, while reveals just 16 housing commencement notices in Galway City from January to the end of September — compared to 907 over the period last year.

Every other local authority in the country has seen a considerably higher number of houses started … even the next lowest, Leitrim, is on 47 (with a population last Census of just 35,000 compared with 85,000 in Galway City).

Galway county has seen 390 notices, compared to 1,158 during the same time in 2024.

Nationally, 10,193 notices have been received since January — just a fifth of the figure this time last year

The most units commenced by a local authority this year so far have been in Dublin City at 1,808, followed by Cork County with 956 and Fingal County with 736. Limerick City had 731 and Cork City 442.