A survey of house builders has found that more than half are not building at the moment.
The survey also found half of the builders not constructing houses do not plan to restart building for at least a year.
The survey was carried out by Merrion Stockbrokers.
It said the results indicated that house builders now see the housing downturn being deeper and more prolonged than they previously had expected.
The firm surveyed 26 building companies.
The survey found that 73% of builders had noticed lower selling prices this year compared with 2007, with almost 40% seeing drops between 10% and 20%.
Next year 88% of builders expect their prices to be unchanged from this year, but 8% expect more falls and 4% forecast an increase.
Almost three quarters of the builders surveyed had houses for sale, but 30% of these believed it would take more than a year to clear their backlog.
Half of all those who responded said first-time buyers in particular were finding it very difficult to obtain a mortgage as banks had tightened lending while some builders pointed to an absence of investors in the property market.
FÁS expects large drop in construction employment
Separately, State employment and training agency FÁS has said that it expects the number of people employed in the construction sector will have fallen by 50,000 from its peak by the end of next year.
It said that this will pose serious policy challenges for Government.
The new forecast from FÁS comes after figures from CSO showed that employment in the construction sector fell by almost 12% in the twelve months to March.
This is the largest annual reduction in construction employment since records began in 1994.
FÁS also said that it is developing a new action plan with the twin objective of providing assistance to builders who will lose their jobs, and also facilitating apprentices who are made redundant to complete their apprenticeship.
The construction sectors that FÁS expects to target for replacement jobs include the sustainable development and repair and maintenance sectors, as well as infrastructure projects funded by the National Development Plan.
