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The number of homes built in 2018 was still well below the target, experts said yesterday. [Thurs]

Despite an extra 3,665 houses being built compared to 2017, it was still 1,928 houses below target.

Commenting on the Central Statistics Office’s New Dwelling Completions, IPAV, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers, said while it is going in the right direction, it is well below what they had predicted.

Pat Davitt, IPAV’s Chief Executive, said: “Apartments are at a very low 13% of the 18,072 new dwelling completions for 2018 point to the structural problems that ‘still haunt the property market.’

“More apartments are needed in the cities in particular where demand is greatest and affordability is an issue, but they are not coming on stream at the kind of levels needed.

And he said his organisation is in total agreement with the position of the Dáil’s Housing, Planning & Local Government Committee report today which says that issues already in the housing market could be worsened by Brexit.

“The structural issues around planning, the cost of building and the excessive cost of building finance for SME builders in particular remain as major impediments to the supply of homes which have become endemic since the financial crisis.”

And the CSO report also revealed that Dublin and the Mid-East make up 60% of all new dwelling completions in 2018.

Meath, Kildare, Louth, Carlow, Waterford and Cork were the only other six counties which had 100 or more new houses built in Q4 2018.

Dublin had 592 new apartments built, three-quarters of all new apartments in Q4 2018.

The primary data source used for the New Dwellings Completions series is the ESB Networks new domestic connections dataset where the date that the connection is energised determines the date of completion.

There has been a significant level of construction output in the student accommodation sector.

In Q4 2018, 817 bed spaces were completed in student accommodation which brings the total completed since Q2 2016 to 6,348.