County Wicklow
New Build Wiring in Wicklow. The county builds in one corridor.
Wicklow completed 4,143 new homes in 2023–2025 and 1,797 of them, 43.4%, landed in the Wicklow town electoral area, with another 832 in Greystones. Bray West and Bray East took 424 between them. If you are buying new in Wicklow, the odds are you are buying in the Wicklow, Rathnew and Greystones corridor, and the house is scheme built rather than one-off: 3,122 scheme houses against 499 one-offs.
Where Wicklow Builds
Wicklow's new building sits in one corridor, not Bray.
Wicklow finished 4,143 homes across 2023, 2024 and 2025, at 1,427, 1,338 and 1,378 a year, so the rate has held steady. Where they went is the part worth knowing. The Wicklow town electoral area took 1,797 of them, 43.4% of everything the county built. Greystones took 832. Baltinglass took 572 and Arklow 402. Bray West took 266 and Bray East 158, so the two Bray areas together came to 424 in a county where Bray is the biggest town.
Kildare spreads its building across eight towns. Wicklow does the opposite and puts it in one corridor running from Greystones down through Rathnew and Wicklow town. That matters when you are choosing who wires the house, because building in that corridor is scheme building: 3,122 of the 4,143 completions were scheme houses, with 499 one-offs and 522 apartments making up the rest. A scheme house is specified by the developer's electrical contractor to a standard set for the whole estate, and it is set long before you walk the site.
The practical consequence is timing. On a scheme house the sockets, the lighting points and the position of the fuse board are decided at first fix, and by the time you are handed keys the walls are closed. So the questions to ask are the early ones: what is included as standard, what counts as an extra, and what date the cut-off falls on. Anything you decide after that becomes surface work in a finished house. We wire, extend and certify to IS 10101 either way, but the cheap moment is before the plaster.
Wicklow In Numbers
What is actually being built in Wicklow
| Type | Homes | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Scheme houses | 3,122 | 75.4% |
| One-off houses | 499 | 12% |
| Apartments | 522 | 12.6% |
Source: CSO new dwelling completions 2023–2025, County Wicklow. 4,143 homes completed in total. Data pulled 2026-08-05.
The corridor: Wicklow town, Rathnew, Greystones
The county's new building is concentrated in two electoral areas. Wicklow town took 1,797 completions and Greystones 832, and Rathnew sits between them. Baltinglass at 572 and Arklow at 402 come next, then Bray West at 266 and Bray East at 158. If you are moving into a new house in that corridor, you are moving into an estate where the same first fix was repeated across dozens of units, so the electrical questions are rarely about design and usually about what was left out. J Cowman Electrical Contractors works Wicklow from a Wexford base and covers 13 counties across Leinster and the south east.
One-off builds are a different job
Not every new build in Wicklow is an estate house. The county recorded 499 one-off houses across 2023, 2024 and 2025, against 3,122 scheme houses and 522 apartments. A one-off is a different piece of work from the start, because the site services have to be wired and controlled as well as the house itself. We set that out in full on our Wexford new build page rather than repeat it here, and the same approach applies whether the site is near Baltinglass, which recorded 572 completions, or Arklow at 402. On a one-off, talk to an electrician before the foundations go in, not after first fix.
First fix, second fix, testing and certification
On a new build the electrical job runs in two visits and ends in paperwork. First fix is cables, back boxes and the fuse board position, done before the plasterer. Second fix is sockets, switches, lights and the fuse board itself, done when the house is nearly finished. Then the installation is tested and certified to IS 10101, which is the national wiring rules for Ireland, and the certificate is issued through Safe Electric. Keep that certificate. It is the document a solicitor, a valuer or the next buyer will look for, and it is the record of what was tested on the day.
The work that starts after handover
A lot of the electrical work on a new Wicklow house happens after the builder has left the estate. It is the additions on a house that is only a year or two old: an outside light and socket at the back door, a car charge point on the gable, a socket in the attic, a garden office fed from the house. Wicklow has 5,399 homes built since 2011 out of a stock of 53,142, and that is the group this work sits in. None of it needs a rewire. It needs a spare way on the fuse board, a correctly sized circuit and a certificate.
Who You’re Dealing With
Why this job is safe with us
J Cowman Electrical Contractors is based in Wexford and covers Wicklow as part of our Leinster service area. Same crew, same registration, same certificate on completion.
Safe Electric registered
Registration A6700
Verifiable on the public register
Public liability insurance
Up to €6.5M
Cover in place on every job
Crew size
10 electricians
Trading since 2021
Fixed-price quote
Within 48 hours
WhatsApp replies within the hour, Mon–Fri
Building in Wicklow: what we get asked
Should I get my own electrician for a new build, or is the developer's enough?
The developer's contractor wires the house and issues the certificate, so for the base build you do not need a second electrician. Where an independent one earns their money is everything outside that contract: extras the developer will not price, work you want done after handover, and a second opinion on what has actually been installed before the snag list closes. With 3,122 of Wicklow's 4,143 completions being scheme houses, most buyers in the county are in exactly that position. Ask us to look at the drawings early rather than after the walls are closed.
When is it too late to add extra sockets to a new build?
First fix is the cut-off. Once the cables are run and the plasterer has been in, adding a socket means either chasing a finished wall or running surface trunking, and both cost more than the same socket would have cost before the plaster. On a scheme house the electrical extras list usually closes before that point, and the date is set by the developer, not by you, so ask for it in writing when you sign. If you have missed it, the work is still straightforward on a new house, but expect it to be routed around the finish rather than through it.
How much building is actually going on in Wicklow?
Wicklow completed 4,143 new homes across 2023, 2024 and 2025: 1,427, then 1,338, then 1,378. That is a steady rate rather than a spike. The split was 3,122 scheme houses, 522 apartments and 499 one-off houses. By electoral area, Wicklow town took 1,797, Greystones 832, Baltinglass 572, Arklow 402, Bray West 266 and Bray East 158. For context, the county's total housing stock is 53,142 homes, so the last three years of building came to a small fraction of what is already standing.
Is the fuse board in a new Wicklow house big enough for what I want to add?
Usually yes for a few additions, and that is the first thing to check. Most new boards are installed with spare ways, and if there is a free way of the right rating, adding a circuit for a car charge point, a garden office or an outside socket is a straightforward job. If the board is full, the answer is a change or a sub board rather than squeezing circuits together. We will not quote a number here without seeing it, and our fuse board page explains what drives the cost. Anything added is tested and certified to IS 10101.
Do you cover Wicklow, and how far north do you go?
Yes. J Cowman Electrical Contractors is based in Wexford and covers 13 counties across Leinster and the south east, Wicklow included, from Arklow up through Wicklow town, Rathnew and Greystones to Bray. That corridor is where the new building is: the Wicklow town area alone accounted for 1,797 of the county's 4,143 completions, or 43.4%, with Greystones on 832. Jamie Cowman is Safe Electric registered and all work is certified to IS 10101. Call or send the drawings and we will tell you straight whether the job is worth a visit.
I'm building a one-off house in Wicklow. Is that the same job as an estate house?
No. 499 of Wicklow's 4,143 completions were one-off houses, against 3,122 scheme houses, and the one-off is the more involved electrical job. On an estate the layout is fixed and repeated. On a one-off you are also wiring and controlling the site: the supply run in, and pumps or plant that a mains-serviced estate never needs. We set all of that out on our Wexford new build page, because the same site work applies on a Wicklow site. Get the electrician in at foundation stage so the ducting goes in once.
A trip switch keeps going in my new house. Does that mean it was wired badly?
Not usually. A trip switch doing its job is normal when an appliance develops a fault, and on a house built in the last few years the usual causes are a faulty kettle, an immersion element, an outside socket taking water, or a shower. The fix is to find which circuit and which appliance, not to replace the board. Wicklow has 5,399 homes built since 2011, and faults in that group usually come back to an appliance rather than to the installation itself. If it trips with everything unplugged, that is a different matter and worth a proper test.
What electrical paperwork should I have when I take the keys?
You should have a completion certificate for the electrical installation, issued through Safe Electric by the registered contractor who wired the house, showing it was tested and certified to IS 10101. Keep it with the deeds. It is the record of what was tested on the day the house was handed over, and it is what a solicitor or a future buyer will look for. If you add anything later, a car charge point, a garden office, an outside socket, that new work gets its own certificate too. Ask for it at the time rather than chasing it a year later.
Written and checked by
Jamie Cowman, Registered Electrical Contractor
Jamie runs J Cowman Electrical Contractors and holds Safe Electric registration A6700, which is what allows a Completion Certificate to be issued on this kind of work. Everything on this page reflects how the job is actually priced and sequenced on site, not a generic specification.
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