THE WIDELY-HELD perception that there are any number of completed houses and apartments overhanging the market in the Dublin area is being challenged by Ronan O’Driscoll, head of Savills’ residential division.

Two years ago a detailed study carried out by his agency showed that there were no fewer than 10,800 vacant homes in the greater Dublin area. The figure today is 4,000 and he says the vast majority of the units are out-of-town apartments .

Instead the first-time buyers are chasing the traditional starter homes: three-bed semis, which are now only available in relatively small numbers on a range of suburban sites.

One of the best-known starter home schemes, Barnwell at Hansfield near Clonee, has had 30 sales in the last month largely because of a substantial fall in prices. Three-bed homes, for example, have been selling at €150,000 compared to €350,000 at the peak.

O’Driscoll says that with an increasing number of mortgages being made available to first-time buyers from Bank of Ireland and AIB, he expects the remaining 20 three-bed semis to be gone within a matter of weeks.

Savills say there is no question of building more houses when the present stock is exhausted because with contractors obliged to pay around €50,000 in local authority contributions and VAT, it would not be possible to build similar homes and cover site costs for similar selling prices.

The housing shortage is not confined to the new homes market. Various selling agencies are reporting huge turnouts at viewings of second-hand family homes in some of the more established Dublin suburbs.