Irish house prices ‘to rise’

Irish home prices will surge at the fastest pace in Europe in the coming years, fuelled in part by bankers moving to Dublin as the UK prepares to depart the EU, S&P Global Ratings has said.

The price of a house in Ireland will increase 8.5% this year and 7% in 2018, S&P said.

That’s the fastest rate out of 10 European markets examined by the ratings company.

Ireland is one of the preferred destinations for financial firms planning to move staff from London to another EU location in order to retain so-called passporting rights which allow them to trade with the bloc.

Bank of America chose Dublin as its preferred EU hub after Brexit last month, while JPMorgan Chase bought a planned city centre office block that could hold as many as 1,000 people.

“The resulting inflow of workers in need of housing should contribute to sustaining house-price increases in Dublin,” S&P economists said.

“Other regions, which have so far been lagging behind, will in turn benefit from a catch-up effect, as the economic recovery increasingly broadens there as well.”