Since the peak of the boom, house prices have come down by 50%.

Over the past year though, the cost of houses has started to rise again, in Dublin and surrounding areas. A shortage of family homes is causing demand to rise and it's contributing to fears that if prospective home owners out-bid each other they'll cause prices to jump beyond what's affordable.

CSO figures from July showed values in Dublin were an average of 4.2% higher than a year ago, with some apartments up by almost 10%.

And last week, quarterly statistics from the Office showed growth in the sector for the second sucessive month, this time prices rose by 2.3%.

Tom Dunne, Head of Surveying and Construction DIT told Newstalk's Breakfast you can't have a bubble without financing, and with the banks so unwilling to lend, it looks unlikely: