The Government needs to double the number of homes being built every year if it is to start addressing the housing crisis, an expert has argued. 

Today, Daft.ie revealed in its latest report that rent in Ireland increased by 4.3% between September this year and September in 2024. 

The average monthly rent for a two bedroom apartment is now €2,080.

Last year, 30,000 new homes were built and Professor Ronan Lyons, Professor said that is well short of what needs to be delivered. 

 “Between 58 and 72,000 new homes are needed every year for the next 20 to 30 years,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“That’s the underlying social requirement for housing.” 

A man building a wall. Picture by: Alamy.com.

The economics professor added that even if housing delivery doubles, then the Government is only “getting into the right range”. 

“You can’t double capacity overnight,” he continued. 

“But we need to be getting into the 60s in terms of numbers of homes built per year in order to be consistently addressing the housing deficit that’s built over the last, at least, 10 years - arguably over the last 30 years.” 

In the Programme for Government agreed this year, the Government promised that it would build 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030.

Main image: Housing in Kildare. Picture by: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie