Responding to the CSO Residential Property Price Index for November, IPAV, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers, said the trend at the moment is that of little change but the key issue is, how on earth the country is going to manage to build the 340,000 homes the Central Bank estimates we need up to 2030.
Pat Davitt, Chief Executive of IPAV said while there is a bit more positivity arising in recent times around Brexit there are serious underlying problems around affordability and access to mortgages that continue to “plague the market.”
He said the ESRI recently identified the key issue of the price of building homes needing to be driven down.
“But the real challenge to policymakers as we enter a general election is how that aspiration is going to be turned into an outcome,” Mr. Davitt stated.
IPAV says there is a lack of transparency around building costs and has called for an official index charting all building input costs.
The Institute has also called for the Central Bank loan-to-income threshold for mortgages to be increased to 4.5 times income for those on up to €50,000 a year. Many such people find themselves having to pay very high rents but could well afford mortgage repayments which would be much lower.
