Gloom after the boom as construction stops on apartment site

The storm clouds are gathering over the housebuilding industry. This week came the bad news that Joe Kenny's Woodgreen Builders has halted construction on a huge apartment site at Finglas Road because of the slowdown in the market. The company has already completed some of the piling for the 340 apartments on the old Premier Dairies site and pre-sold 45 units.

People who paid deposits have been told that there is a "construction delay" and have been given the option of having their money returned or staying on at the original prices, even though there is no date for work recommencing. Coming after the problems Lark Developments is experiencing, this is exactly the kind of news the industry can do without. What is now being seen as a crisis brought 58 home-builders together at the Radisson Hotel earlier this week to mount a campaign against the Government's policies. Many of the younger builders in particular told the meeting they were heading into serious difficulties, with sales rapidly slowing down and little sign of them being able to complete schemes on heavily financed sites.

However, there is unlikely to be too much sympathy for their plight from the Government. The younger builders may find that they are paying the price for the greedy attitudes of some of the wealthiest builders when the market was booming. The meeting was told that up to 20,000 construction workers are likely to be laid off in the next year, unless the Government reverses some of its earlier decisions regarding residential property investments. The builders are particularly sore that at a time when investors were forced out of the Irish market, their punts were making their way to Spain.