Construction slump eases as new building rates rise across 11 counties

THE slump in new building may be slowing, according to number-crunching figures released by An Post subsidiary GeoDirectory.

It says that new building rates have picked up in 11 out of 26 Irish counties so far this year.

Bucking the downward spiral, 7,330 new residential and commercial buildings have been identified in the first six months of 2011. Although that’s a 10% drop from a year ago, the rate of fall is less than previous years, when 40%, 49% and 57% drops were recorded in 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively.