Property prices in the State should grow by around 4 to 5 per cent this year, according to the body representing estate agents.

In its annual property survey for 2006, the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI) said last year’s property market “continued to confound the pessimists”, with a record 92,000 new housing units completed and strong capital values for the year across the country.

However, the survey reveals estate agents expect residential values to rise “more modestly” in 2007.

“The survey confirms that 2006 was a year of two halves in the Irish property market with Dublin auction prices rocketing in the first half of the year but 82 per cent of houses being withdrawn from auction in the second half,” the report states.

Alan Cooke, chief executive of the IAVI said 2006 was “an amazing year” for residential property, with unprecedented growth of as much as 25 per cent in the upper end of the Dublin auction market in the first quarter.

He noted that what was effective stagnation followed in the autumn, with widespread withdrawals at auction - which he blamed on overly optimistic price expectation on the part of vendors and uncertainty surrounding the levels of stamp duty that emerged in the autumn in the run up to the budget.

Posted: 01|23|07 at 2:32 pm. Filed under: Auction News.