The price of houses rose by 22.7 per cent last year and there was a 10.2 per cent increase in the number of private houses built. However, there was only a 5.5 per cent increase in the number of homes built by local authorities and a 35.8 per cent decrease in those provided by the voluntary non-profit sector. These are among the main findings of the Annual Housing Statistics Bulletin for 1998.
The figures also suggest that lower-income groups, particularly manual workers, are being squeezed out of the market.
Dublin remained the most expensive place to buy residential property, with the average price of a new apartment reaching £131,344, a 44.2 per cent increase on 1997. The average price of a new house in Dublin was £124,243 last year, compared with £94,326 in 1997. However, the average price of a new house for the last quarter of 1998 was £132,841.
In Cork, the average price of a new house in 1998 was £87,735, compared with £75,242 in 1997. In Galway, the average price for last year was £92,798, compared with £86,160 in 1997.
The price ranges for new houses in Waterford and Limerick were closer to the Cork figures. In 1998 a new house in Limerick cost £81,859, on average, last year and £71,188 in 1997. The respective figures for Waterford were £84,257 and £71,473.
The average price of a secondhand house in Dublin was £138,234 in 1998, compared with £102,436 in 1997. This represents an increase of 34.9 per cent. In Cork, the average price of secondhand houses rose from £69,364 in 1997 to £86,580, an increase of 24.8 per cent.
The average cost of secondhand homes in Galway rose by 25.8 per cent over the same period, from £78,882 to £99,310. The average new apartment in Dublin cost £91,046 in 1997 and £131,344 in 1998, an increase of 44.2 per cent. The average cost of a new apartment throughout the Republic rose from £82,142 in 1997 to £106,213 last year, an increase of 29.3 per cent.
Single people accounted for 57.3 per cent of people borrowing from financial institutions to buy new houses in the Dublin area. The majority of borrowers, 52.9 per cent, were from the professional and managerial occupational categories. Manual workers accounted for only 23.3 per cent of borrowers, compared with 33.8 per cent five years ago.
The most dramatic drop was among unskilled manual workers. These accounted for 7.3 per cent of borrowers five years ago, but for only 3.4 per cent in 1998.