Housing supply set to take a significant hit

Ireland’s housing supply is going to take a significant hit this year due to Covid19. 

It's estimated 10,000 fewer new homes will be built because of the pandemic. 

Projections for the year indicated up to 26,000 units would be ready for sale. 

But Chief Economist with the Banking and Payments Federation, Dr Ali Ugur says as few as 14,000 could be finished, with capacity in the building sector down as much as 50%. 

"There are still restrictions, obviously health related restrictions in place.

"When you look at the numbers and you assume the capacity will be about 50-75%,  we think the output will be between 14,000-16,500 units.

"When we look at the supply side we have a significant unmet demand coming from the previous years, we only managed to complete about 21,000 units last year."