15 October 2025
House Prices – IPAV Calls for Transformative Change in New Housing Plan
Commenting on the latest CSO Residential Property Price Index for August published today showing a further 7.4% annual increase, lower in Dublin and higher outside of Dublin, IPAV, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers, said too many of the current indicators on housing supply are in negative territory at the moment and this does not augur well for supply, and consequently stabilisation in prices, in the foreseeable future.
Genevieve McGuirk, IPAV’s Chief Executive said: “This presents a seismic challenge for the Government with next month’s new housing plan.”
She said that plan will have to deliver “like nothing heretofore has.”
And she said commentary from the Department of Housing at the weekend in relation to the new Housing Activation Office was “not encouraging.”
“It is worth remembering what the Housing Commission said about housing policy, that ‘ineffective decision making and reactive policy making where risk aversion dominates’ was a core issue.”
She said the Commission’s strong recommendation to address this issue was:
‘A Housing Delivery Oversight Executive must be established in statute as a focused entity with overall power to address functional failures and implement reforms. The Commission believes that this is essential to address the systemic reset required. This body would be legislatively empowered to remove obstacles to housing delivery and would drive coordination across legislation, regulation, and administrative practices.’
Ms McGuirk said: “If what we see next month amounts to a pale shadow of that recommendation, then that would be a cause for concern.”
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