Home buyers are becoming increasingly frustrated by the pace of delivery in the housing market, according to the latest consumer sentiment survey by MyHome.
The majority are worried about the state of the property market in general, while just 7% say recent changes to housing policy have made it easier to buy a property.
72% say planning delays are a major reason that homes take too long to be built in Ireland, and half reported a lack of local infrastructure has changed their ideal location to buy.
"Only 12% feel enough is being done in infrastructure, which I think is very topical considering all the flooding coverage we've had around flood relief and so on this week, and more than seven in 10 are pointing to planning delays as being a major barrier now to housing delivery," said Joanne Geary, MyHome's Managing Director.
However, Ms Geary said the findings show consumers are prepared to be flexible, and are looking at other ways to buy a home.
"Six out of 10 of the respondents said that they would consider buying a vacant and derelict home if more was done by way of grant support to facilitate them doing that," said Ms Geary.
"But clearly, they're also saying that affordability pressures mean that they're postponing their decisions or indeed not enabling them to renovate a home," she said.
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"I think the message is clear from the survey, buyers want action, they want to see more being done and certainly the government has more to do in terms of communication on some key messages," she added.
The GeoDirectory Residential Buildings report showed the national vacancy rate stood at 3.7% in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Dublin, at 1.2%, had the lowest vacancy rate in the country, while Leitrim, at 11.7%, had the highest.
The number of derelict properties fell by 3.3% in the 12 months to December 2025, with 19,438 buildings classified as derelict in the State.
"When you look at that stat of six out of 10 being interested in vacant and derelict homes supports, more needs to be done maybe on how those grants are paid to people and certainly how we could fast-track some more of those homes through planning," Ms Geary said.
"A lot has been done, 36,000 homes were delivered last year, but some of these measures could get that figure closer to 40,000 or 50,000 homes which is needed in the market," she explained.
The findings also show there has been an acknowledgement among consumers that the pace of house price growth has started to slow down.
Just over half of respondents expect property prices to continue to rise over the next year.
This compares with 63% when the same question was asked in the MyHome sentiment survey last March.
