12% drop in new home completions puts Simon Harris pledge under threat

Dermot O'Leary, chief economist at Goodbody, said that poor weather and timing issues may explain the unexpectedly low number of housing completions in recent months, at a time when other indicators point to a sharp rise in house building activity

Dermot O'Leary said Goodbody was sticking to its forecast that 35,000 new housing units would be built this year, the highest number since the banking and property crash. 

The pledge by Simon Harris to build 250,000 new homes over the next five years appears to have got off to a shaky start after official figures unexpectedly showed that the number of new houses completed in the first three months this year dropped by 12%. 

Only 5,800 dwellings were completed in the quarter after a marked decline in the number of new apartment completions in the Dublin region, according to the Central Statistics Office figures.