Housebuyers fleeced over last 10 years

HOUSEBUYERS have been paying massively over the odds for property in the past 10 years, the Central Bank said yesterday.

In its winter bulletin, the bank said that between 1992-2002 construction costs rose 80% while house prices in Dublin shot up by 300%.

Dr Michael Casey said massive rises in the cost of land and the profits being made by builders were the obvious explanations for the huge divergence.