The Irish Home Builders Association has said the situation in Priory Hall could have been prevented if a national builders' register existed.

HOME values are falling rapidly towards the point where they were expected to bottom out but there is no consensus as to whether they will drop even further than feared.

LEADING housing charity Respond! has called for an independent review of the country’s planning system in the wake of a survey that revealed more than 2,800 unfinished housing estates nationwide.

THE government has rejected claims that there are as many as 345,000 empty houses and apartments lying idle across the country.

THE Government is considering scrapping a 20-year sale clause on people who have acquired homes under an affordable housing scheme.

THE building industry has welcomed Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe’s proposals to generate employment by getting developers to build schools that would be leased back by his department.

Developers should be forced to pay more towards the cost of local amenities, it was claimed today.

An online guide to buying a new house in Ireland has been launched by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF).

House builders today attempted to instil confidence in the falling market claiming more units than forecast would be completed this year.

The Minister for Finance has announced that houses with a value of less than €1m will be subject to stamp duty of 7 %, with no tax payable on the first 125,000.

The Irish Home Builders’ Association (IHBA) has today pointed to favourable economic and demographic factors as the key drivers of strong demand for housing in the medium and long-term.

The number of house completions for the first 10 months of 2006 has risen 20.6%.

TWO sets of figures were released yesterday that show a buoyant building industry is facing difficult times with a significant fall-off in the number of planning permissions being granted for new houses.

GOVERNMENT plans to curb cost overruns on public projects will send many small and medium building companies out of business, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) warned yesterday.

ENVIRONMENT Minister Dick Roche yesterday pledged the State would deliver more affordable homes of high quality and do so at "a faster pace" than before.

DEVELOPERS who pay farmers money for the right to be first buyer of their land if it is rezoned for housing must be forced to declare this publicly to provide cheaper homes, Housing Minister Noel Ahern insisted yesterday.

HOUSING Minister Noel Ahern is “hopeful” of brokering a deal with developers that will allow more than 25,000 middle-income earners squeezed out of the property market to buy their first homes.

THERE was a 30.6% increase in the number of planning permissions granted last year as people attempted to cash in on lucrative tax incentive schemes ahead of the December deadline, it emerged yesterday.

THE Construction Industry Federation (CIF) believes property developer Owen O’Callaghan is wrong to call for an end to tax incentives for property developers.

The Construction Industry Federation has called for an overhaul of Ireland’s planning system to make it easier for developers to complete projects.

Independent research commissioned by the construction industry has claimed that 45% of the price of a new house goes to the State in taxes.

PARENTS are remortgaging their homes or borrowing up to €20,000 to help their cash-strapped children buy a house.

FINDING somebody to take responsibility for adding rocket fuel to house prices is even more difficult than locating a reasonably priced home.

The Irish Home Builders Association (IHBA) has dismissed Dublin City Council’s property levy plan as 'a property tax by the back door' that will add 5% to the price of a new house.

The Irish Home Builders Association say that any increase in local authority charges next year will lead to an increase in house prices.

The Government's take on the cost of a new house is now as high as 40%, according to Hubert Fitzpatrick of the Irish Homebuilders Association.