Cost of land, not houses, is falling

WHY do the media persist in saying house prices are falling? This statement is nonsense, as anyone building a house knows.

The cost of building a house certainly isn’t falling; no, what is falling is the cost of the land houses occupy. In the case of most ordinary Irish houses, the cost of land is around one-half of the total cost of the property.

Violent swings in the cost of property wouldn’t happen if a land value tax were introduced.