Sharon Donnery: Perspectives on the Irish housing market - the past five years

Speech by Ms Sharon Donnery, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, to second annual ESRI/Department of Housing conference on the Irish housing and mortgage market, Dublin, 13 November 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Introduction

Good morning, it is a pleasure to address the second annual conference on the Irish Housing and Mortgage Market. I welcome this forum, jointly organised by the ESRI and the Department of Housing, bringing together experts on housing from academia, government, and industry. The papers presented so far this morning have provided insightful discussion and healthy debate.

Considering the housing market today, it is important to place it in context of the wider Irish economy. The economy has performed remarkably well over the past five years and has been one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union. We have seen consistent, strong growth in employment, and average weekly earnings have increased by 14 per cent.

The strong recovery and performance of the economy has come with rising housing costs. Compared with five years ago, today, house prices and rents are both over 40 per cent higher. While house price growth is slowing, average rents increased 4.3 per cent in the first half of 2019.