A long-time Fine Gael TD says he could not afford to buy a house if he was entering the property market for the first time due to strict Central Bank mortgage rules to prevent another crash.

New directions for physical planning of the built environment post-Mahon Report, along with the future of the country’s ghost and unfinished estates, will come under a planners’ spotlight at month’s end.

MORE than €120,000 will be wiped from the value of the average Irish house by the time the market bottoms out.