In spite of soaring house prices, house-building hasn’t returned to its pre-pandemic levels. This will cause concern among thousands of prospective buyers eager to purchase a home.
The Central Statistics Office reported on Wednesday that building work remains lower than pre-pandemic levels, with construction in the last three months of 2021 down 6.3% compared to the same three months in 2019. This is bad for buyers as limited supply means higher prices.
Houses are currently rising by more than 14% a year with the average price now at almost €327,000 nationwide and more than €500,000 in Dublin. However, prices are still 10% below their boom-time peak from 2007.
Although the amount of building increased by 6.2% in the final three months of last year compared to July, August and September. Activity levels still remain lower than Q4 2019 in the residential and nonresidential categories.