Banks ‘driving prices up’

THE lending policies of banks and building societies are driving up the cost of housing, Junior Environment Minister Noel Ahern said yesterday.

The Minister for Housing said house prices generally were continuing to rise and the generous policies of the lending institutions were a cause for concern as they were contributing to the demand for property.

Mr Ahern was publishing new housing statistics for the first quarter of the year, which showed the number of houses being built continues to grow.

Across the country to the end of March, 13,700 houses were completed, an increase of 14.5% on the same quarter in 2002. The figures also showed an increase of almost a third in local authority house building.

Governments over the years had shied away from tackling the issue of cost of land for building, Mr Ahern said, but he said this now had to be confronted.