Irish residential property prices, which remained resilient during the Covid-19 shock last year, are set to rise by an average of 4% in 2021 as supply shortages continue to prop up valuations, according to a survey of chartered surveyors. 

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) found that two-thirds of the 250 chartered surveyors that were surveyed in December expect property prices to increase this year, ranging from a 3% advance in Dublin to 6% growth across Connacht and Ulster. 

While more than three-quarters of SCSI agents were predicting property value drops in the first quarter of last year as Covid-19 started to sweep across the country, this fell to just 8% in the December poll. 

Experts – spanning economists to banking executives – had estimated at the height of the coronavirus crisis last May that property values would decline by as much as 12% in Ireland in 2020 in the face of mass unemployment and a hiatus in economic activity brought about by the pandemic. However, the market has defied expectations, as ongoing supply shortages were compounded as construction came to a standstill during the spring lockdown.