SIPTU makes call for house-price task force

There has been a call for a special Government task force to investigate rising house prices. SIPTU's national industrial secretary, Mr Des Geraghty, said that "galloping inflation in house prices, with unprecedented profiteering in the housing sector, is causing serious hardship for many and risks undermining the stability of the economy". A task force could speed measures to slow rising house prices, he said, adding that it should also look at the designation of more land for the building of medium to low-cost housing. He called for the revision of Government policy on mortgage relief and an investigation of land deals and rezonings, which were allowing "extraordinary profits to certain individuals".

His believed that the task force should investigate the forces driving house prices "out of reasonable reach of most working people". He said there was a need to look at some auctioneering and conveyancing practices and at developers' profit margins. In his view the current inflation figure of 1.75 per cent was meaningless, as house prices in Dublin were rising at the rate of 25 per cent a year, with significant increases in other cities and throughout the country.

"People are being asked to pay scandalously high prices for modest houses," he said.