Review highlights sharp fall in house-building this year

The amount of new houses and apartments being built in Ireland has fallen sharply in recent months, according to a new study published today.

The review by the construction cost management firm David Langdon PKS says the number of new houses being completed and put on the market continued to soar in the first quarter of this year.

However, it says the number of new dwellings on which construction work is just getting underway has fallen sharply in both the last quarter of 2005 and the first three months of 2006.

This could push up house prices later in the year due to a lack of supply, but David Langdon PKS says it is too early to say if the figures represent a trend or a one-off aberration.