Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Please, Deputy Mathews. I am indulging you but I need to conclude the meeting. I noted the Minister's comments with regard to the property sector. Deputy Mathews makes the point about rules on the valuation of property. The Minister's comment this evening that the billed costs of a property have not come down during the shrinkage years of the property market because even when property values dropped the billed costs have not reflected the depreciation in the values. There would seem to be another matrix besides the rent. One would assume that the average house is valued at four times the average income of approximately €38,000. This means that the average purchase price should be somewhere around €160,000 to €180,000 at a maximum. If we see the price of the average house moving beyond the ratio of four to five times the national industrial wage, we are in a property bubble. It does not matter how much it costs to build a house and it could be that we are paying people too much to build houses if that is the difficulty-----