Information in relation to the average price of new houses is provided in my Department's quarterly housing statistics bulletin, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas Library.
The Government has implemented a wide range of measures to reduce excessive house price increases by boosting housing output, removing infrastructural and planning constraints on residential development and discouraging speculative demand. These have included: extensive measures to increase housing supply including the introduction for the first time ever of a greatly expanded four year multi-annual local authority housing programme and the unprecedented expansion of the voluntary housing programme; increasing the supply of serviced residential land through targeted initiatives and the commitment of significant Exchequer funding – on foot of these initiatives, there is currently six years supply of serviced residential land nationally and in the greater Dublin area; securing the more efficient use of serviced housing land through higher residential densities; introduction of a range of measures to expand the capacity of the planning system, including the appointment of additional planning staff to local authorities and An Bord Pleanála significantly improving the eligibility criteria under both the shared ownership and the affordable housing schemes, and introducing innovative legislation through Part V of the Planning and Development Act, 2000, to increase the supply of affordable housing going forward; the removal, in April 1998, of mortgage interest relief for investment in the residential housing market and the introduction of higher rates of stamp duty on such investments with the aim of discouraging speculative demand; and the rebalancing of stamp duty rates to favour first time purchasers including increasing the exemption limit from €76,184 in 1997 to €190,500 currently.