Poll: Are you worried that Ireland is headed for another property bubble?
The ESRI recently warned that an overheating housing market could pose a risk to the economy.
WITH HOUSING PRICES surging upwards in the latest quarter, the dreaded ‘b-word’ has started to be thrown around again.
The latest figures from property sites Daft.ie and MyHome.ie both showed prices leaping in the first three months of the year – with analysts blaming policies that have further stoked pent-up first-time buyer demand for at least part of the increases.
Tweaks to the Central Bank’s lending rules and the government’s help-to-buy scheme have both fuelled buyers’ appetites, although the supply of new homes is still a long way off rising to meet their needs.
Ireland’s premier think-tank, the ESRI, sounded the alarm bells in its latest economic commentary, warning there was a real risk that another construction boom would emerge and the country would find itself with another dangerous combination of property over-dependence and oversupply.
However appearing on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, Housing Minister Simon Coveney denied the nation was headed for another property bubble.
He said there would be no return to the Celtic Tiger-era practices of first-time buyers being able to borrow “ridiculous” amounts of money.
While the Central Bank’s lending rules having been relaxed since they were first introduced, the regulations should stop a return to rampant boom-time practices like no-deposit mortgages.
With that in mind, we’re asking Fora readers this week: Are you worried that Ireland is headed for another property bubble?
