Vol. 530 No. 6
314 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the typical cost of a new house in Dublin in 1990 and 2000; if he will break down those costs into land, materials and other costs, including labour; and if he will make a statement on the rise in the price of land over the period. [4848/01]
The average price of a new house in Dublin in 1990 was £63,595. The average price for the year 2000 is not yet available, but the average price for the third quarter of 2000 was £173,739. These figures are based on returns from mortgage lending institutions and the breakdown into the cost of land, materials, or labour is not available in my Department.
An indication of changes in the cost of house building may be obtained from the national house building cost index. This index relates solely to standard wages set by the national joint industrial council for the construction industry and average market prices for construction materials and does not include items such as development land prices, planning and development levies, planning fees, legal fees, marketing costs or profits which would be reflected in house prices. This index is published in my Department's Housing Statistics Bulletin, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas Library.
My Department does not have information on the price of land, but it is generally accepted that demand for residential building land is derived from the demand for housing, not the other way round. The first Bacon report, An Economic Analysis of Recent House Price Developments (April 1998), supports this analysis and states that the rising land costs may reflect the relatively inelastic supply of serviced developmental land at sought after locations.
The stock of serviced residential building land is encouraging and is set to improve significantly going forward with approximately 4,500 acres of zoned serviced land in Dublin city and county which could provide over 67,000 housing units, over six times current annual housing output.
A number of measures have been taken to increase the availability of land for housing. In addition to increased investment in the water and sewerage investment programme, the serviced land initiative has been expanded and will service an estimated 167,000 sites, of which some 28,000 sites have been serviced to date, and almost 90,000 sites are expected to be serviced by the end of this year. Furthermore, a number of strategic development zones to fast-track planning and development of key residential sites will be designated by Government order shortly.
Guidelines on residential density, formally issued by my Department in September 1999, are being reflected in local authority development plans to ensure the potential of available land is being utilised as effectively as possible, and a number of high density schemes have been approved in Dublin. Major local area plans have also been adopted in Dublin during 2000, including Stepaside with a potential for 4,800 housing units, Ballycullen-Stocking Lane, 2,300 units, Lusk, 2,300 units, Diswellstown-Porterstown, 5,600 units, Pelletstown, 4,000 units, and the North Fringe, 7,000 units.
