Noonan says up to 30,000 new houses will be needed annually

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has predicted that up to 30,000 new houses will be needed from next year onwards in particular in Dublin where young couples with children are looking to leave apartments.

Speaking in Limerick today Minister Noonan said house prices are starting to rise again particularly in South Dublin which he said is giving a "strong lead".

” Dublin as in many other areas is giving the lead and south Dublin is giving us a strong lead according to one survey prices are up 12%... These things can change very rapidly,” he said.

“There are a lot of young couples with children in apartments now and they are looking at houses. There is probably a shortage of houses in certain family home areas in Dublin. We’d need about 25,000 to 30,000 new houses each year as we plan forward.

“Last year there was less than six built so you can see there is a mismatch now between supply and demand and we would be conscious and we hope the market will pick it up in the first instance,” he added.

Mr Noonan was speaking in Limerick and was responding to two surveys published this morning showing asking prices for houses have risen in Dublin over the past year with south Co Dublin registering a spike. Asking prices continued to decline nationally, though at a slower rate than last year, according to reports by property websites Myhome.ie and Daft.ie.

The increase in asking prices in Dublin is more than 5 per cent – the biggest jump in house-price growth in six years, according to the Daft report. South Co Dublin prices are up 12.2 per cent, according to Daft.ie, and 3.9 per cent, according to Myhome.ie.

This is the strongest annual growth recorded nationally since early 2007, says Daft.ie. Myhome.ie recorded a 1 per cent growth in Dublin in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, with average asking prices at €238,000.