New figures show housing crisis worse than official figures suggest

The housing crisis is much worse than official figures suggest with figures showing the construction of new homes has barely increased in many urban areas.

The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) said almost 18,000 homes will be started this year, up from the 13,234 units under way last year.

However, CIF warned there was no end in sight to the shortages because an average of 35,000 new homes will be needed each year over several years to meet pent-up demand.

CIF said that, in Cork City, 153 new homes were started by the end of October, an increase of only seven units over the same period in 2016.

Building commencements in Cork county amounted to 1,316, an increase of only 188 from a year earlier.

The CIF figures for other urban areas include Galway city, where 100 new homes were started in the first 10 months, an increase of 17 from the same period last year.

In Limerick city and county, 341 units got under way, an increase of one home in the year.

Its figures are based on so-called building commencement notices collected by Eoghan Murphy’s Department of Housing from central and local government organisations and do not rely on estimates based on ESB connection figures which many experts say wildly overstate the number of new homes under construction.

The department is conducting a review of the official housing statistics.

The figures also suggest the increase in building starts is underwhelming in the Dublin region.

Across Dublin local authorities, 5,943 homes got underway in the first 10 months, an increase of 1,465 units from a year earlier.