First-time buyers are being squeezed out of the housing market because of a shortage of zoned and serviced house building land, the Irish Homebuilders Association (IHBA) has said.

The chairman of the IHBA, Mr Paddy Raggett, said first-time buyers are in "steep decline" in the property market. "The shortage of residential land has seen site costs increase by up to 200 per cent and has resulted in the price of even modest houses reaching levels which make it increasingly difficult for first-time buyers to afford them," he said. He was speaking at the association's annual general meeting yesterday.