Davy: House prices to climb 10% this year

House prices will rise 10% this year across the State and climb at even faster pace outside of Dublin, fuelled by the Government’s Help to Buy scheme and the Central Bank’s loosening of its mortgage lending controls, Davy Stockbrokers has predicted.

In new forecasts, the broker also forecasts GDP will surge 5% this year – up from 3.7% growth in an earlier outlook -- before growth slows to 3.8%, in 2018.

Davy has leapfrogged Investec Ireland in predicting the highest growth rate this year among 14 forecasters of the Irish economy. The Department of Finance predicts GDP will grow 4.2% this year and by 3.5% in 2018.