90,000 new homes built last year, says CIF report

The construction industry estimates that 90,000 new homes were built in the Republic during 2006.

According to the Construction Industry Federation's (CIF) activity report, 90,000 houses were built last year and the figure is expected to increase marginally this year.

The CIF's figures show that housing accounted for the bulk of building industry output in 2006. It made up €19.8 billion of the industry's total €35.6 billion output during the year.

Of that figure, the CIF estimates that public housing accounted for €1.9 billion.

However, it points out that in terms of State infrastructure spending, public housing is second only to road building and the amounts spent on this have grown rapidly over the last decade.

"Between 1995 and 2000, public sector spending on housing was €3,303 million," the report says. "Between 2000 and 2006, this figure has risen to €10,517 million, an increase of 218 per cent, the largest increase in any sector of infrastructure."

The figures also show that employment in the industry has been growing for the last four years. Total employment stands at 277,800, more than one in 10 of the two million people at work in the Republic.

"Construction employment has grown quarter-on-quarter since quarter two 2003, and is likely to continue to grow in line with the projections of employment creation in the wider economy," the report says.

"In 2000, one in every 10 workers in the economy worked in construction; by 2005, this has become one in eight, one of the highest rates in the developed world. It is likely that while this proportion will moderate over the next years, the construction sector will continue to be a mass employer in Ireland."

The CIF predicts that the industry will grow at roughly the same rate as the economy as a whole in 2007. It predicts that total growth for 2005-2008 will come to 12.4 per cent, or just over 4 per cent a year.

It warns that this level of growth depends on "the ability of State agencies to manage investment in public capital productive and social infrastructure, the impact of interest rate changes on demand for new housing, the publication of the new national development plan and the impact on the increasing housing and infrastructure stock on repair and maintenance expenditure".