The Irish property market is the sixth fastest growing housing market in the world, as demand continues to exceed supply.

According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Ireland, the Irish residential property price index rose by 7.75% during last year to October 2017, which is up on the previous year’s 5.53% year-on-year rise.

The increase has been driven by strong demand as well as Supply Shortages – despite a record 7,503 new homes being built in the first 10 months of 2017, according to figures from Goodbody, property experts think a minimum of 30,000 new properties need to be built in order to fulfil demand.

Continuing to climb

House prices throughout Ireland have risen by an average of almost 50% since they bottomed out five years ago.

They are now expected to rise at the fastest pace in Europe over the next two years, according to the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, which predicts an average increase of 7% by the end of 2018 on the back of a strong labour market and housing supply shortages in key areas, particularly in Dublin.

Meanwhile, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has forecast that the cost of buying a home in Ireland will rise by at least 20% over the next three years. The state-funded think tank has reassured Irish citizens that property price growth at such a rate would not mean another property bubble was inflating.

However, professor Kieran McQuinn, author of the ESRI report, told the Irish Times that inflation estimates of 20% “are on the conservative side” and that prices could climb higher and more quickly.

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