Builders should be supplying housing directly for the State to combat the property crisis.
It comes as more than three-quarters of renters who share accommodation with others believe they will never own a home.
The figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) also found the vast majority of those who lived alone were happy to do so.
David Hall is CEO of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation. He told Pat Kenny solutions to this are there.
"This was a massive survey... the CSO survey was 10,500 participants.
"That's an absolutely enormous sample size - the normal sample size is around 1,000 people.
"So the data is overwhelmingly significant."
A construction worker at a site on George's Street Dublin, 16-03-2021. Image: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNewsHe says the 76% of people who feel they will never own their home "is an enormous number and a very difficult position for many people to be in.
"I think all the reverberations at the moment that are happening around housing, around the concerns, the supply, the demand, the need - even every year the Central Bank review around mortgages.
"And this year more than most we've heard them all out speaking about it - including the Governor - which indicates to me some changes are afoot, or they expect some changes to come from a further public consultation".
And he says he is concerned of people going back into mortgage difficulty.
"In parallel to the system that you have of the lending is the bureaucracy that's involved in many of the mortgage companies.
"And the craziness that's involved in trying to actually navigate through a system to borrow the money, which doesn't lend itself to assist in the market at all.
"And I really fear - in recent months having seen it first hand - the anxiousness, the nervousness and the stress involved of people wanting to own their own home, bidding against each other.... people looking to go to borrow money from their parents, from credit unions.
"I just really fear, having seen first hand the last 10 years, a real danger with people in mortgage difficulty.
"Making sure the right balance is struck, from prudence to making sure that people don't end up in great difficulty again.
"The policy-makers and legislators need to take action.
"There's land, there's builders that are available to build - they should be building directly for the State through the councils for both public, private and affordable housing.
"There are solutions, there needs to be a political will to have those solutions".
'Elephant in the room'
And David says renters need more stability at the very least.
"This is the huge challenge and the elephant in the room.
"Many tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people, are in a position where... 76% of those people surveyed don't believe they will ever own their own home.
"Let's accept that as being correct and that's going to happen... where are people going to be?
"Not many people are even offering those long-term leases, not even the 25 years or 50 years, that doesn't exist here.
"And it's a major flaw in what's available, we've a huge amount of vacant properties".
