Wednesday 16th September 2026
HOUSE PRICES – ZONING AND PLANNING CHANGES CRITICAL TO BREAK DYSFUNCTION – IPAV
Commenting on today’s CSO Residential Property Price Index for July, showing a slight lessening in the level of price increases, IPAV, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers, said the outlook for the remainder of the year is “looking challenged” given enduring supply constraints and increasing interest rates.
Genevieve McGuirk, IPAV’s Chief Executive said: “The concern is that increasing interest rates will impact buyers struggling to get on the property ladder and competing with cash buyers; those on higher salaries and State bodies.
“But, higher interest rates are also going to impact those investing at the building end of the property market, with margins increasingly tight, given input cost increases on top of existing pressures on viability, particularly in relation to apartments, and for those willing to participate without the deep pockets that many lenders tend to insist upon,” she said.
The Government’s housing plan, particularly around zoning more land, thereby reducing the first, and ever-increasing input cost to housing development, is critical to viability,” she said.
“But time is of the essence, given the size of the challenge.”
She said the need for “de-bureaucratising” of planning and infrastructure and its coordination across the housing policy landscape is critical.
“In this regard the latest Central Bank report finding that building a home in Ireland now takes four years instead of two a decade ago, because of the State’s dysfunctional planning system, quantifies what we already know.”
“This seismic policy change must happen if we are to break the stasis and deliver for the first time in almost two decades,” she said.