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Ireland needs 16 times more new homes than are being built each year

Published 07:49 30 Jun 2017 BST

Updated 08:09 30 Jun 2017 BST

Anna O'Rourke

Ireland needs 16 times more new homes than are being built each year

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Ireland needs 50,000 new homes each year, but just 3,000 were built in 2016.

That's according to Daft.ie's latest quarterly House Price Report, released today.

"When obsolescence, falling household size, natural increase and net migration are factored in, the country needs 50,000 homes a year," said Trinity College economist Ronan Lyons, author of the report. "It is not getting that, and supply has not been meeting demand since 2011, meaning we have also a backlog to meet."

He wrote that while recent government policies have worked to stimulate demand and prices, the state must focus on supplying homes to create a "healthy" housing market.

"The principal reason why so few homes are being built is the high cost of construction.

"Hopefully the new Housing Minister will focus on reducing the hard costs of construction. This will have beneficial effects for both market and social housing."

Meanwhile, house prices continued to climb - they rose more in the first half of 2017 than they did in all of last year. They've risen by over €2,000 per month nationally, the report found. Dublin city continues to be the most expensive place to buy a home in Ireland. The average asking price for a home there is now €352,975, a rise of 12.3 per cent year-on-year. Nationally, the average price is €240,000, up 11.7 per cent on last year. Asking prices have, on average, risen by almost half (46.2%, or just under €76,000) since their lowest point in 2013.

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