80% Fall In Building Activity

Date Published: 08-Aug-2008

THE extent of the construction industry crisis in Galway City has been revealed in new Government statistics which show the number of new houses being built is almost at a standstill, with an 80% drop in activity on last year.

And the building industry has suggested a Government ‘bail-out’ for the property market, through investment in the Irish banking sector. During the first three months of this year, there were just 47 houses completed in the city, down a whopping 80.3% from 238 during the same period in 2007.

Now, the country’s biggest construction body has warned that further drops are on the way, as the property market bottoms out. To put the dramatic extent of the construction slowdown into perspective, in 2007, there were a total of 681 private houses completed. In 2006, there were 1,198 completions; in 2005, the figure was 1,040; in 2004 there were 1,465.

The busiest year for construction in the city was 2003, when there were 1,927 housing completions, while in 2002, there were 1,407.

A spokesperson for the Construction Industry Federation told the Galway City Tribune that there is no sign of a recovery…