House building boom to slow as activity levels off

A decade of annual increases in the number of new homes being built in the Republic is set to end this year, according to figures due to be released this morning.

The figures, to be announced by Minister of State for Housing Noel Ahern, are broadly in line with expectations and reinforce a belief that house building is beginning to level off.

They show a marginal decline of 0.9 per cent in the number of new houses completed in the Republic for the first seven months of the year to 41,863.

The figure is down 0.9 per cent on the corresponding figure for 2004. On this basis about 76,000 new homes would be completed this year. The statistics cover public and private housing.

The smallest number of completions by county was in Monaghan where just 377 new homes were provided in the months to the end of July.

This was followed by Leitrim where 475 new houses were provided, and Longford where 487 new homes were built. The figures for Leitrim and Longford include housing benefiting from upper Shannon rural tax reliefs.

Not surprisingly the highest number of completions was in Co Dublin where 9,597 new homes were built. This was followed by Cork county where 4,811 were constructed, followed by Galway with 2,339.

In the counties adjoining the greater Dublin area, Meath had 1,928, Kildare had 1,689 and Wicklow had 1,248.

"At this stage the figures would seem to be pointing to another year of very high output, but there are some indications of a general levelling off, which is probably to be expected after 10 years of record house-building growth," Mr Ahern said.

"We will watch with interest how the trend develops through the remainder of the year."

Last year was the 10th year in a row of record house completions. Ireland is now building at the fastest rate in Europe - over 19 units per 1,000 of the population, compared with around 3.5 units per 1,000 in the UK. Land-availability studies suggest there is enough serviced land to meet current rates of residential development for the next five years.

The Department of Environment insists Part V of the Planning and Development Act will ensure that over 1,600 social and affordable homes will be provided under that scheme in 2005.