Ireland's housing market could be showing further signs of stabilisation, a new report has claimed, with the Irish Banking Federation the latest to predict better market conditions.

According to the IBF Housing Monitor for the second quarter of the year, the number of properties listed for sale rose, as did the number of transactions and the level of mortgage drawdowns.

Compared with the second quarter of 2012, there was a 3.3 per cent rise in the number of listed properties for sale to 9,901, while transactions were up by 8 per cent. Although mortgage approvals rose by 9.7 per cent, to 4,408, the level of drawdowns only increased slightly to 2,857, a rise of 20 compared to the previous year.

Dublin and Leinster were the key drivers for the positive trends, the IBF report said.

The report follows data from the Central Statistics Office published earlier this week that showed prices in July rose at the fastest rate since the market began to crash in 2007. That report also indicated activity in the Dublin market was the key driver beneficiary of improved activity.

ESRI economist David Duffy said he believed the new data was in keeping with the slow improvement in Ireland’s economic outlook.

“Although uncertainty remains about the international economic outlook, an increasing number of economic indicators are showing improvement rather than continued decline. Many of these relate to factors that underpin the housing market,” he said.

“At some point a more positive view of the outlook for the market, reflected in people’s price expectations, will translate into increasing demand for homeownership. House price expectations will play a key role in determining the outlook for the housing market.”