Property prices are likely to jump by close to 10 per cent this year unless more supply comes on the market, the umbrella group representing estate agents has warned.
The latest residential property price barometer from the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers (Ipav) suggests that prices climbed by 9.58 per cent over the course of 2024.
The data suggests that the first half of last year was marked by some very high rises for apartments in particular, with increase of between 12 per cent and 14 per cent recorded.
The chief executive of the Ipav, Pat Davitt, said current indications from members suggest property prices are still climbing, with many homes becoming unaffordable even for those on above average incomes.
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“If more stock does not come to market soon, there is a real possibility that 2025 could repeat 2024’s experience,” he warned.
He pointed out that continuing price increases at such levels would not be sustainable. “They do not augur well for locked-out generations on average, indeed above average, incomes,” he said.
“We’re seeing very worrying pressures from a wider societal perspective, such as the difficulties for teachers in affording homes to buy or rent, in the Dublin region in particular,” he continued.
Mr Davitt suggested that the “ship that is housing has entered shallow waters and it desperately needs to be taken out of danger”.
While he welcomed the promise by the Government of radical change in order to achieve a target of delivering 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030, he expressed concern that everything which needs to be done to address the housing crisis was actually being done.
“It’s very difficult to see how this can happen unless the Government incentivises small builders back into the market to build homes as they did in the 1990 to 2007 period,” Mr Davitt said. “While, locally, numbers were small, they were spread nationally satisfying local markets,” he added.
The Ipav head also suggested that the promised new co-ordination and implementation group operating from the Taoiseach’s department would be critical.
“This would elevate housing policy and take it from the clutches and power accretive nature of a single Government department bringing the white heat of the Taoiseach’s department to it where it would be far more accountable, with substantially less opportunity for obfuscation,” Mr Davitt argued.
Recent comments from the Taoiseach saying he is “prepared to look fundamentally at everything again”, including abolishing rent pressure zones (RPZs) “does present some optimism that we might be entering a more positive period in housing”.
