HOUSING COMPLETIONS dropped by nearly 29 per cent in the first half of the year, according to preliminary figures from the Department of the Environment.

Figures to the end of June 2008 reveal that 27,736 housing units have been completed.

This compares with 38,978 for the same period last year.

It is the lowest number of house completions for the first half of a year since 2002 - when 25,218 houses were completed in the first six months - and is further indication of the slump in the construction industry.

According to loan approval data returned by mortgage lending institutions, the average price of a new house in the first quarter of 2008 was €311,113, down 3.1 per cent on the average price in the same quarter in 2007.

The average price for a second-hand home nationally in the first three months of the year was €359,277, a drop of 5.4 per cent from the same quarter in 2007.

The fall in prices was more marked in Dublin, where the average price for a new house in the first three months of 2008 fell by 4.8 per cent to €397,697 compared to the same quarter in 2007.

The average price for a second-hand house in Dublin was €462,475, down 10.4 per cent on the average price reported in the same quarter in 2007.

The number of mortgage loans approved in the first quarter fell 38 per cent to 15,358, the department said.

Measured by value, overall mortgages declined by about 32 per cent.

Nationally, the number of new houses registered under guarantee schemes for the first quarter was 4,365 units.

This was down 68 per cent on the same period in 2007.