PROPERTY: Building industry calls for national register of house prices
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Thursday March 04 2010
THE Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has called for the establishment of a national register of house prices following the cancellation of the monthly ESRI/Permanent TSB House Price Index.
The CIF has indicated its intention to work with the Minister for Housing and Local Services and other relevant parties to progress this matter.
Making the call, CIF Director General Tom Parlon said it has been obvious for some time that Ireland needs a register that captures, in real time, movements in house prices. "Hitherto, we have been relying on lagging indicators that tells us what has happened as opposed to what is happening," said Mr Parlon.
"The decision to cancel the monthly ESRI/Permanent TSB Price Index series was inevitable given the collapse in the survey sample as the lender withdraws from the mortgage market."
He said the CIF has been pointing this out for some time. "However, even at its height the Index, by its very nature, could only tell us what happened in the past. Given the centrality of the housing market in any domestic economy, a guide to house prices movements as they happen, as is available in the Northern Ireland, UK and US economies, is an absolute requirement," said Mr Parlon.
The CIF has asked Minister Finneran to bring together the relevant parties to deal with this as a matter of urgency. "Until the information deficit is addressed we will have to rely on conjecture about what is happening in the housing market, which is potentially very damaging for the economy and, in the current environment, could actually delay Ireland's economic recovery," said Mr Parlon. He said in the US and throughout Europe, Governments have targeted housing market recovery as a means of stabilising domestic confidence and demand. "In Ireland, the first thing we have to get right is the information about what is happening," he added. "Our own feedback from house building firms is that prices have reduced by nearly 50%. This is based on information supplied by those at the coalface, which we have made available to Government".
The CIF Director General added that the Minister would be asked also to address other areas of uncertainty and inconsistency arising from the lack of concrete housing market and house building data, including in respect of the vacancy rate and the actual level of residential construction at any given time.
"Internationally house building is an important driver, and indeed perception driver, of domestic activity and it is vital that when people comment on what is happening they do so on the basis of reliable statistics," concluded Mr Parlon.
The Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute has supported the CIF's call
