The housing market is stuck, and while there is still huge demand for housing, vendors are expecting too high prices, a conference of auctioneers and valuers heard yesterday.
The property market was gradually "becoming a buyer's market", Mr Jim Power, economist with Friends First told the annual conference of the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute in Tralee yesterday.
However, there were warnings that builders were cutting back, with problems for supply next year and the possibility of price increases. Mr Ciaran Ryan, director of the Irish Home Builders Association, said 47,000 houses were built last year, with 41,000 for this year and a predicted 37,000 houses in 2002.
Economist Mr Peter Bacon said one of the key issues in getting the market moving again in the short term is bridging the gap between "vendor expectation" and what the buyer is prepared to pay. Sluggishness was now a feature of the property market, in which prices were neither rising nor falling, he said. The first day of the conference was dominated by questions on the impact of the 20 per cent affordable housing. There is confusion among builders, local authorities, estate agents and the general public on how the legislation is going to be implemented.
Speakers from the floor said the first question from prospective buyers was where in the estate the social housing was going to be. "How am I going to sell a house for £125,000, while across the road it is being sold (by the local authority) for £83,000?" one auctioneer asked. But under the social housing scheme, this house would be smaller and would be essentially a starter home, he was told.
The problem was perception. Mention social or affordable housing and negative images of bad planning in the 1970s loomed, said Mr Alan Carthy, director of housing at Fingal. His council was now adopting a policy of building the social and affordable housing first, so people could see exactly what was in store.