When The Irish Times asked readers in March of this year to have their say on whether they would like to own a house or an apartment to live in long-term, an overwhelming majority of respondents expressed their preference for the former. Which isn’t that surprising when one considers that houses have historically accounted for the bulk of the residential accommodation developed in this country, and as such, are what most of us have been most familiar and comfortable with.
Should we have asked a second question though? Well, yes, according to the property industry professional who contacted us following the publication of our readers’ responses to say: “If you had a choice between an apartment and your parents’ box bedroom, which would you prefer?”
It’s a sentiment that Taoiseach Micheál Martin, for one, wouldn’t necessarily disagree with judging by his recent comments on RTE’s Morning Ireland that “we quite simply need more private sector and particularly apartment building happening”.
It’s a measure of just how desperate Mr Martin and his colleagues in Government have become in the face of the housing crisis, that they will seize upon almost any proposal that’s presented to them in search of a solution, from replacing the houses that most people say they still want with apartments, to building glorified granny flats in back gardens, to providing tax breaks for developers.
RM Block
It’s against that rather depressing backdrop that the latest ‘new’ national housing plan is set to be announced by the Government in the coming weeks.
Whatever it contains, however, will have little immediate impact on the level of housing completions, which according to the latest estimates from the Central Bank are expected to reach 32,500 this year. And even that figure could prove to be ambitious according to John McCartney, lecturer in property economics at TU Dublin and adjunct associate professor at UCD.
Asked for his take on the Central Bank’s projection, McCartney said: “Completions will struggle to reach 32,500 this year and may even struggle to exceed 30,000.” Whichever number is correct, it’s a dire situation when one considers that the Government itself says it needs to deliver 50,000 new homes a year between now and 2030, and 60,000 units a year thereafter to meet demand.
[ ‘Perfect storm’: New-home buyers locked out of Government schemes as prices soarOpens in new window ]
As it stands, the overall supply of new homes remains limited, with those available for sale to prospective traditional owner-occupiers more limited still once those units acquired by the State and institutional investors are stripped out of the equation.
While supply will continue to fall far below demand for the foreseeable future, there are new homes to choose from in Dublin, the commuter counties and beyond. A selection of these developments is included in this week’s Irish Times coverage of the new-homes market.
