Rents remain stable but those hoping to buy a home face three years of hikes

That will depend on location, however, because some city-centre rents are expected to decline slightly while accommodation in the suburbs becomes more expensive.

The outlook is from property adviser JLL Ireland in its biennial three-year forecasts on the Dublin market.

The firm says the slowdown in new home completions and the scarcity of properties for sale is a key driver of rising house prices.

“In addition, interest rates have fallen and labour market conditions remain steady, which will have a positive effect on ability of people to purchase houses and is likely to support price growth,” it said.

A 7pc rise by the end of this year is expected to be followed by a 5pc increase next year and a 3pc increase in 2023.

Pressure has eased somewhat in the rental market, particularly in Dublin city centre, but that is due to the short-term effect of renters returning to family homes during the pandemic.

That trend is set to reverse next year and send rents rising again – by 1.5pc in 2022 and 2.5pc in 2023.

“We may start to see a two-tier market emerge between different price points,” the forecast said.

“Affordable rents, classed as below €2,000, may rise, but higher rental levels are likely to remain static.”

The outlook will increase concerns among renters and prospective buyers whose experiences are captured in a new Central Statistics Office survey.

The ‘Life at Home’ survey found 76pc of respondents who shared rented accommodation with non-family members felt they would never be in a position to own their own place.

While 71pc of those in shared accommodation said they enjoyed the company of others, 51pc felt they did not have enough privacy.

Despite sharing with others, 44pc said they felt lonely all or most of the time – much higher than the 17pc who live alone.

Households shared by parents and adult children revealed mixed feelings about the arrangement.

Of the adult children, 57pc said they enjoyed living with their parents, while 87pc of the parents said they enjoyed living with their adult children.

Most adult children (88pc) said they would prefer to live apart from their parents, but only 50pc of parents felt the same.

For the most part, both sides seem to be managing to deal with any difficulties such arrangements throw up.

Since the start of the pandemic, 29pc of adult children living with both parents said their relationship with their mother had improved, while just 16pc said it had disimproved.

Those statistics reversed where an adult child lived with one parent, however, with 19pc reporting an improvement in the relationship and 27pc reporting it had disimproved.

Again, the parental perspective is different, with 30pc of parents saying their relationship with their live-in adult children had improved since Covid and just 8pc saying it had taken a turn for the worse.

Perspectives also differed between partners in households made up of couples, with same-sex couples more likely to report that responsibility for household tasks was shared evenly.

In opposite-sex couples, women were more likely to say there was an imbalance and least likely to be happy with the way the responsibilities were shared.