This article is from page 65 of the 2007-12-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 65 JPG
THE number of house completions in County Clare for the first 10 months of this year are down almost 20 per cent on the corresponding period last year.
Figures from the Department of the Environment show that to the end of October, the number of house com- pletions in Clare totalled 1,825 down on the 2218 for the first ten months last year.
The drop of 393 in the number of house completions represents a 17 per cent drop on house completions last year.
The figures show that for the first three quarters of this year, house completions were down 20 per cent on last year.
The figures has shown that house building has slowed down through- out the year. In the first quarter, the number of house completions was 556, in the second quarter the number dropped to 539 and from July to Sep-
tember, the numbers dropped to 475.
Last year, house building in Clare reached a peak of 2,/27 completions and the annual total was steadily in- creasing since 2001.
The figures show that 1,487 homes were complete in 2001, in 2002, this rose to 1,466; in 2003, this rose to 1,679 and in 2004, this rose to 1,831 before reaching 2174 in 2005.
According to local auctioneer, Cor- mac O’Sullivan of DNG O’Sullivan Hurley said, “Much of the reason for the downturn in completions is increase in interest rates and uncer- tainty in the market.”
Mr O’Sullivan forecast that there may be a shortage of new homes around the Ennis area next year due to the drop in housing completions.
He added, “Some of the major sites being built by Keco Construction Ltd and Danny Devine Construc- tion have not seen any major hit in sales because they are producing an excellent product. Houses area being produced to a very high standard to a
very high specification.
“Developers that produced finished houses to a shabby standard two or three years ago are not getting away A 1H0 mlm DON ee sOKoe
Mr O’Sullivan described the move in last week’s Budget to reduce stamp duty as a good move. He said, “Any move that will save the purchaser money is a good change and this will have a positive impact on the hous- ing market. At the moment, there is excellent value in the second hand market.”