House price increases could be 'well ahead of last year', auctioneers say

Eva Osborne

The Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers has said house price increases in 2025 could be "well ahead" of last year.

It comes after Daft.ie's House Price Report for Q2 2025 showed prices rose by an average of 3 per cent across Ireland during the second quarter of of the year.

The typical listed price nationwide in the second quarter of the year was €357,851, 12.3 per cent higher than a year previously and 40 per cent higher than at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The current rate of inflation in the market is the highest seen in the 10 years since mortgage market rules were introduced.

Commenting on the Daft.ie report, IPAV chief executive, Pat Davitt, said agents are reporting high prices right across the country, not only in the cities.

“More second-hand stock seems to be coming to the market, especially in Dublin Cork and Galway, even if it’s not showing in these figures as yet,” he said.

“But the real problem is the lack of new homes, and it’s prevalent in all areas of the country. In this regard we cannot see how this is going to change without some kind of emergency planning measures."

Davitt said more land needs to be zoned, and it is essential to get smaller builders who have largely been absent from the market for years, back to building again.

“Building finance is a real problem. The €750 million State Home Building Finance Ireland scheme that was intended for such builders and developers had unrealistically high interest rates at a time when the ECB rate was zero.

“This funding went, instead, to large builders/developers, many of whom weren’t dependent upon it. SMEs builders were, so they are still out of the market."

Davitt said this scheme demonstrates “how far State decision-making is removed from the realities of the market place".

He also said the Government’s new housing plan due next month must deliver transformative change.

“It must stimulate supply in a way that no measure has done over the last decade,” he said.