House numbers to double by 2020

THE number of houses in Ireland will have doubled by the year 2020 from 1992 figures, according to Department of the Environment projections.

Housing supply in Dublin has already risen by a third in the past two years, but almost 200,000 new homes will have to be built nationwide each year in order to keep up with demand, a major conference on housing heard yesterday.

Much of the demand for housing is due to the huge population rise in the past decade, Maria Graham, principal officer with the Department of the Environment and Local Government, told the National Housing Conference at Limerick University.