HOUSE prices are continuing to fall as far fewer people are prepared to take out crippling mortgages.


The price of second-hand homes in Dublin and the rest of the country fell significantly towards the end of the year.

A comprehensive Department of the Environment survey of mortgage lenders, covering over 20,000 loan approvals, found that the average price of a second-hand house nationally fell by 4pc in the third quarter of the year, standing at €374,392.

The average price for a new house in the Dublin area was €412,324, falling by 3.3pc in the three months.

The fall was even starker for second-hand homes in the capital, as these dropped by 10.8pc during July, August and September.

Mortgages

More than 20,200 people took out mortgages to the tune of €5bn in the third quarter.

But this represented a decrease of 18.3pc in the number and 25.9pc in the value of loans approved in the same period last year.

The falls came just before Finance Minister Brian Cowen made changes to stamp duty in his Budget in a bid to kick-start the declining market.

Any impact is not expected to be felt until the New Year after a traditionally slow period for house sales.

Worries about rising interest rates have led to many potential buyers holding off and instead adopting a "wait and see" approach.

It is expected rents will rise as greater numbers enter the rental accommodation market.

Builders had been reluctant to take on big housing schemes at a time of market uncertainty and rising interest rates.

The number of notifications to the Department of the Environment from builders signalling the start of projects is down by as much as 40pc in some commuter counties.

While fewer houses were built this year than in previous years, the Department of the Environment housing report, due to be published today, disclosed that almost 71,600 new houses and apartments were built in the 11 months to the end of November.

Affordable

Over 7,500 social and affordable houses were also finished in the first nine months of 2007, up by 29pc on last year.

Housing Minister Batt O'Keeffe said the figures showed that the housing market was evolving to "a more balanced and sustainable growth pattern, particularly with regard to house prices and mortgage lending".

He said the latest figures on house completions revealed that the house-building sector has delivered almost 1,600 new houses and apartments each week with 71,598 housing units completed by the end of November.

This was consistent with a level of housing output that was easing to a more sustainable long-term pattern as supply and demand come into better balance.

"It is generally accepted that demand for housing in the medium term is likely to be in the mid to high 60,000s," he added.

A comprehensive Department of the Environment survey of mortgage lenders, covering over 20,000 loan approvals, found that the average price of a second-hand house nationally fell by 4pc in the third quarter of the year, standing at €374,392.

Pat has just elevated himself into the Dan and Austin bracket with that statement, what programme was it ???

Thanks flash, I will extract "quotes" later . its like something you would expect Country Tom to come out with

This is the reality unless Dan and Pat and those others who reside
in the ivory towers of Bank headquarters have a new theory that
disproves the iron law of supply and demand.

aw bugger off ewd .

This time it wasn't the normally pro-development Fianna Fáil councillors who took the initiative, but their Fine Gael colleagues, supported by Progressive Democrat and Sinn Féin councillors. Fianna Fáil actually opposed what it called "blanket rezonings".

The targeted villages read like a roll-call - Arles, Attanagh, Ballacolla, Ballinakill, Ballybrittas, Ballyfin, Ballylynan, Ballyroan, Borris-in-Ossory, Camross, Castletown, Clonaslee, Clough, Durrow, Emo, Errill, Killenard, Rosenallis, Shanahoe, Stradbally and Timahoe.

Cllr Michael Moloney (FF) said afterwards he feared the rezonings would conjure up a "Rochfortbridge scenario" - a reference to the Co Westmeath village that's now engulfed by suburban housing, built largely for people commuting to Dublin.

"Each village in Co Laois should have been taken on a one-by-one basis and plans drawn up in consultation with the local communities," he said. "It's just nonsense for the Fine Gael group and others to argue that developers will provide sewerage and other facilities".

There is no provision in the Midlands Regional Planning Guidelines, adopted last April, for large-scale residential development around the villages of Co Laois. Its focus is on building up the urban structure of the region in accordance with a "hierarchy" of towns.

The guidelines give precedence to the "triangular gateway" of Althlone-Mullingar-Tullamore, identified in the Government's National Spatial Strategy, while not forgetting Longford and Portlaoise. Next in line are the region's smaller towns; villages are way down the list.

The "key objective" of the guidelines is to develop a "cohesive settlement strategy" that would "prioritise the linked gateway and principal towns as the primary foci for development", consolidate the smaller towns and "support" the existing network of villages.

If development is to start from the bottom of this hierarchy, a situation never envisaged by the guidelines, it is obvious the places that really need to be built up will lose out and the settlement pattern will become even more haphazard. An Taisce, among others, has argued in favour of building up villages as a viable alternative to indiscriminate one-off housing in the countryside. But this would mean preparing detailed local plans, rather than simply zoning land in the way it has been done in Laois.