Vast tracts of unzoned and unserviced land within the M50 around Dublin should be freed up for houses in an effort to resolve the housing crisis, an economic consultant, Mr Colm McCarthy, has urged politicians.
Extensive zoning for residential development should also be provided outside the M50, particularly along the northern and southern DART lines and the Kildare Arrow and Maynooth lines, to prevent commuting by car becoming even more widespread, he added.
Addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport, Mr McCarthy, of DKM Economic Consultants, said a joint approach should be taken to the capital's housing and public transport crises. "If we built properly and planned public transport accordingly, we would not need to have people commuting from as far as Mullingar. We could probably accommodate extensive development without even going as far as Maynooth."
In a report presented to the committee, Mr McCarthy said that while the urban sprawl problem was present in all major cities, it was most acute around Dublin. "The commuting belt is expanding and public transport provision is virtually a non-starter for many of the newer commuter towns," the report said.
"But there remain inside the M50 large tracts of derelict land, unzoned and unserviced, but also not used for farming or recreational purposes. The late Fintan Gunne (an estate agent) used to refer to these areas as `piebald pony country'. Some of these areas are finally coming to be zoned for residential development, but many are not, or are being rezoned at densities which are too low."
Commenting on the housing crisis, Mr McCarthy said that the average house price in Dublin city and county had risen to £127,071 in September 1998 from £59,492 in 1993.
But in the same period the income of a typical employee had risen by about 4 per cent per year, totalling about 25 per cent. Young couples were effectively being ruled out of the property market, he said.
To buy a house costing £120,000 or more, a couple earning £20,000 each would have to find £50,000 of unborrowed funds to supplement what the lenders would advance them. A sole earner would need to be earning £40,000 a year to come close to the amount required.
"It is clear that the vast majority of people in the younger age groups are frozen out of the homeownership market at current price levels," his report said.
It currently costs about £60,000 in labour and materials to built a bottom-of-the-range property, although these dwellings were selling for prices up to twice that figure.
"Builders need some margin to cover interest costs, administrative overheads and risks," said the report. "But it is clear that the owners of development land are currently enjoying much higher returns than is normally the case. "These excess returns can only be reduced or eliminated if the artificial restrictions on land availability are addressed. These relate to zoning and serving land, in the areas of high demand in particular."