Rents and property prices to rise 8% this year, surveyor body says

Rents and property prices will rise by 8 per cent in Ireland this year, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) has said.

The SCSI prediction comes a day after global ratings agency Fitch suggested Irish property prices would rise 10 per cent in 2018, slowing to 5 per cent in 2019.

SCSI’s annual outlook of the property market suggested that rents will rise 8 per cent despite the introduction of rental caps in Dublin and Cork, with most surveyors suggesting the cap has forced a significant number of landlords to exit the market.

On the continuing house price inflation, John O’Sullivan from the SCSI’s residential agency group said surveyors were concerned at the low level of housing bring built for middle-income earners. “Many believe this is because it is simply not economically viable to build affordable new homes in urban areas, where demand is highest,” he added.

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The rising price of development land, which is expected to increase by 11 per cent this year, was singled out as one factor leading to price increases.

The report also found that while the number of planning permissions increased by 15 per cent in the first three quarters of 2017 compared with the same period in 2016, demand is expected to continue to outstrip supply.

Separately, Fitch said on Tuesday that properties would continue to become less affordable for Irish buyers this year on the back of house price inflation and low wage growth.

Of the 22 markets analysed by Fitch, Ireland was the only one in which property prices are expected to rise in double digits.