Forecast for 19,500 new homes to be built next year       

There was a 33% drop in the number of house completions in the second quarter from a year earlier

File picture: Joe Giddens/PA Wire

There will be 16,500 new homes built this year and 19,500 new units in 2021, according to forecasts by Goodbody chief economist Dermot O'Leary. 

The new forecasts are up from the 14,00 and 16,000 completions the broker made in earlier projections but remain far short of the 35,000 new builds required to meet demand, it said.