In Dublin City, the median price of a new home bought by a household in 2024 was a whopping €850,000 - comprising €875,000 for an apartment and €630,000 for a house. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/ The Irish Times
The familiar response of politicians to the problem of rapidly rising house prices is to blame a shortage of supply.
In response, all policy levers, including reducing standards, are being pulled to encourage in particular the supply of tens of thousands of new apartments.
On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland this week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that “we need more private sector, and particularly apartment, building”.
The issue is that fewer than one in 10 of all new apartments ever come to the market for sale, and less than one in 20 in places like Dublin city. So just what effect has policy had on housing output and where are we headed?
In 2017, the median new house price was €310,000, but by 2024, in spite of significantly increased supply, the me
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