First-time buyers will drive Ireland’s property market in 2017 with the highest city price increases of 10pc predicted for Galway and Limerick.
Agents expect a 6pc rise nationally, driven largely by new demand from first timers who are expected to be most active where new homes are available.
That is thanks to the easing of the Central Bank’s restrictions on mortgage deposit lending and the Help to Buy scheme.
A survey carried out for the Irish Independent by the Real Estate Alliance Group (REA) has found that agents throughout the country expect prices in the capital to outstrip the national average, with a 7pc rise expected in Dublin.
Surging rents, a lack of suitable supply and the punitive mortgage deposit rules for first and second-time buyers had combined to put the Dublin property market into reverse through the start of 2016.
However, an increase in mortgage-approved buyers and the recent easing of the Central Bank’s deposit restrictions has seen first-time buyers return to viewings.
This, combined with a shortage of suitable supply, has caused prices to rise again, and REA agents in the capital are predicting that the outlook is bright for the new year, at least in the lower end of the market.
However, there is less appreciation anticipated in the upper ends of the family home scale – as serious issues around the income multiplier and the deposit rates put the brakes on many second-time buyers trading up.
Agents in the three main cities outside Dublin are optimistic about 2017, with rises of 10pc predicted in Limerick and Galway.
Cork is looking at a 5pc increase.
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