Dublin is experiencing a severe housing shortage with prices way ahead of European standards for a city of its size, a report today revealed.
The acute shortage of housing in the city is showing no signs of abating and has led to extremely high housing prices, the report by the Dublin Institute of Technology showed.
The study showed that only 10,000 new houses are being built in Dublin each year to satisfy a demand of 20,000.
It also claimed this was affecting the economic competitiveness of the greater Dublin area as a whole.
Mr Brendan Williams, of the Institute of Technology, said his company had analysed trends of supply and demand for the city in the report commissioned by the Society of Chartered Surveyors.
"The Dublin region at present is not providing enough housing to accomodate its natural growth or indeed to cater for the inward employment and inward migration gains that we have experienced in recent years," he said.
He said the reason for this was that the city had depended on outward expansion into greenfield lands, instead of providing housing in areas where people were employed.
"So we have neglected, if you like, the city itself in terms of the stock of development land that is available, and we have continued to push outwards into greenfield lands for our development needs."
This resulted in problems related to congestion and infrastructure, he said.
Mr Williams said there was a significant amount of disused land and derelict sites in the city which should be looked at as ways to solve the housing problem.
PA