Economist: Dublin to drive up national house price rises of 7%

A leading economist is forecasting an increase of up to 7% in national residential property prices this year.

David Duffy from the ESRI has said the value of houses and apartments in Dublin alone could rise by up to 10%.

It comes as a new report from the Irish Banking Federation said the property market is showing signs of a stabilisation.

The IBF's Housing Market Monitor for the second quarter of the year showed the number of houses and apartments listed for sale is up by 3.8%.

There has been an 8% rise in transactions, with mortgage approvals almost 10% higher - although loan drawdowns are up by just 0.7%.

The CSO's latest Residential Property Price Index, released this week, also showed an increase of 2.3%.

David Duffy, who carried out an analysis of the IBF report, has said the price rises are being driven by the Dublin market.

Mr Duffy said: "I think there will be a rise in house prices, I think it will be an annual average rate of increase in the order of 5-7% nationallly.

"Dublin will be higher than that, I think it will probably be somewhere around 8-10% in Dublin."