"We seem to have set the wrong targets, I think - the Government have set themselves a supply target, rather than capacity and affordability building."
Speaking on RTÉ's Behind the Story podcast, Assistant Professor at UCD’s School of Architecture, Planning & Environmental Policy Orla Hegarty said there is a mistaken belief that supply will reduce price.
"The impact of supply on price is not that significant actually overall," she said.
"You will have to increase the housing stock in the country by 1% to maybe get a 1% fall in prices.
"So, trying to reduce prices and get affordability through supply is the wrong mechanism."
Earlier, speaking at the launch of a new housing development, Minister for Housing James Browne said supply was key, but the Government was working to deliver as many homes as possible.
Read more: DCC and agencies focusing on houses for first time buyers
New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that residential property prices rose by 7.5% in the year to March, down from the 8% rise recorded in the previous month.
Ms Hegarty said special attention must be given to the cost of new builds.
"Property prices are cyclical and as money keeps flooding in prices will keep rising," she said.
"Fundamentally we need an affordability strategy for the sector - particularly new build - and how we approach the construction of new housing.
"We’re not going to get out of this problem by further inflating prices; and inflating prices to attract international investment is building risk into the system that it will grind to a halt, or we’ll have oversupply of the wrong thing."
Ms Hegarty believes recent changes to apartment standards, which will allow smaller units to be built, could have the opposite effect.
"Added to the fact that apartment standards were changed to allow very dense, high-rise developments which are extremely difficult to finance because they can’t be built in phases," she said.
"Ironically the idea to fit more on a site has probably meant we’ve got less on a site now."
Also fresh from The Ploughing, David, Katie and Fran reflect on the first day back of the new Dáil term - including a call from Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins for a minute silence for Charlie Kirk.
You can listen to Behind the Story which is available on the RTÉ Radio Player.
You can also find episodes on Apple here, or on Spotify here.
