77,000 new homes in 2005

Ten years on from the start of the property boom annual housing completion figures have more than doubled, according to statistics from the Irish Home Builders Association (IHBA).

Over 62,000 new housing units were built in the first 10 months of 2005 and an estimated 77,000 new homes will have been built by the end of this year, says the IHBA. This compares to 30,575 units completed in 1995. Since then, housing completion figures have increased steadily. By 1998 house completions reached 42,349 - by 2001 the figure was 52,602. In 2003, 68,819 housing units were built - in 2004, 76,954 units were completed.

With completions for this year also looking set to exceed 2004, this is the 13th consecutive year for increased housing output, according to the IHBA.

Figures from the Department of the Environment show that for the first 10 months of this year there was an increase of 2.3 per cent in the number of new house completions when compared to the same period last year.

The IHBA is forecasting another year of high output in 2006. This, according to director of the IHBA Hubert Fitzpatrick, is based on housing registration figures for the first 11 months of this year. There has been an increase of 3,592 registrations for new houses to the end of November 2005 - an increase of 6.5 per cent on the 2004 figure.

By the end of November 2005 there were 59,200 new home registrations, compared to 55,608 in 2004. These will convert into completion figures as 2006 progresses, says Fitzpatrick.