The North faces a housing crisis, the Assembly heard yesterday in a debate on a motion calling for action to deal with a lack of affordable housing. "Every time housing prices rise by £1,000, more people fall through the affordability floor for starter homes," warned the SDLP's Dr Alisdair McDonnell, calling for a ministerial task force to be set up. "We are in the beginning, as I see it, of a housing crisis. How it pans out in the long term depends on the way we handle it from here," he said.
Noting the rise in homelessness, the Alliance leader, Mr Sean Neeson, expressed alarm at statistics showing that not enough houses were being built in the public sector.
"Statistics for the present year say that 1,507 new houses were built by housing associations. Yet there are over 23,000 people on the waiting lists. So how are we going to deal with this issue if, in fact, supply is not meeting the demand?"
The DUP's Mr Sammy Wilson, an MLA for East Belfast, noted that first-time buyers were paying an average of £58,000 for their homes, with 13.8 per cent of their income going on housing costs. He told MLAs sustained economic growth had led inevitably to an increased demand for land and homes.
A Sinn Fein MLA, Ms Michelle Gildernew, said the debate should focus more on the lack of social housing.
"I believe prices will also become worse in the next number of years if proposed rent increases go ahead, given that higher rents will mean that people who can will buy their own homes, decreasing the amount of social housing available in places like Derry and Belfast," she said.
The Minister for Social Development, Mr Maurice Morrow, of the DUP, argued that house prices in Northern Ireland were merely catching up with markets in the Republic and Britain. For many, home ownership remained a viable option, he said.
Meanwhile, a report on student finance by the Assembly's Higher and Further Education Committee was frozen after MLAs failed to agree unanimously on its findings.