Survey: Number of 'ready and willing' home-buyers is twice number of houses sold in past year
Demand from home-buyers in Ireland is growing, and could outstrip the expected rise in the building of homes, according to a new survey by KBC Bank Ireland.
The survey has found there are around 110,000 "ready and willing" home-buyers.
KBC Bank Ireland said it is expected that any rise in the supply of property will not meet the surge in demand.
They said: "There are currently 110,000 'ready and willing' home-buyers in the market which is twice the number of property sales in the past twelve months."
Austin Hughes, Chief Economist at KBC, says the upturn in the economy has led to a rise in demand for housing.
He said: "Demand is picking up for home purhcase at the moment - confidence in the economy and the sense that people's prospects in terms of incomes and employment are improving - has seen more people consider home-buying.
"Of course there's the fact that a lot of people are simply in the wrong place now in terms of their housing."
He said: "For every property that changed hands in the past 12 months there are now two ready and willing buyers.
"It also shows that the current 'swell' we are seeing in housing demand is also boosting property inflation even though new housing supply is increasing."
