The chairman of Irish Life & Permanent has predicted Irish house prices would grow by 8 to 9 per cent this year.
Speaking at the group's AGM in Dublin this morning, Chairman Mr Roy Douglas said the group saw "exceptional growth" in new mortgage lending and reported "strong growth across principal businesses" in current trading.
He said the mortgage market continued to perform "very strongly", partially fuelled by "very favourable" underlying demographics and low interest rates.
"In terms of house prices, the House Price Index, which we compile in association with the ESRI, suggests that we are seeing evidence of a soft-landing in terms of house price growth.
"Our forecasts for this year suggest that the rate of national house price growth overall is likely to be in the order of 8 to 9 per cent - a welcome out-turn compared to the much stronger rates of growth of recent years."
Mr Douglas said new house completions, with over 65,000 new houses built last year, helped slow the increase in house prices.
"There is no doubt that continuing this level of completions over the coming years is critical to ensuring continued moderate price growth," he said.
The appointment of Gillian Bowler was announced as chairman at the firm. Ms Bowler, already a non-executive director at Irish Life and Permanent, is also chairman of Failte Ireland and founder of Budget Travel in the 1970s replaces Mr Roy Douglas in the post.