Strong forecast for McInerney

Building group McInerney has described demand in the Irish property market as strong and it expects growth of 15-20 per cent in the period ahead.

Speaking after the company's annual general meeting in Dublin, chief executive Barry O'Connor told The Irish Times that the company expected a strong year, but long-term basis expectations needed to be lowered.

"Sales are good. Sales are up. They've been good. We are getting the prices we've been looking for. We've come off the back of two years where we've grown 40 per cent. So I mean to expect 40 per cent growth going forward is probably a bit unrealistic. But we expect a good year. Conditions are good," said Mr O'Connor.

"But we are talking in terms of 15-20 per cent growth, that's what we've been saying," he added.

Asked about the Irish property market, Mr O'Connor said he disagreed with recent bleak overviews of the Irish market.

"Demand remains strong. It is true everybody is saying... it has to come to an end, but demands remain strong. Our sales are up on last year."

Asked what kind of buyers were most active, he said: "What we are finding is a lot of the buying is from owner occupiers. That has been the case for 18 months or so."

House price inflation in the past 18 months for three-bed starter homes has been about 7-8 per cent, he said.

He said apartments along the Liffey might be suffering from an over supply of properties but this was not the trend in the mainstream part of the market. He said it was important for the company not to become too focused on Dublin.

"We deliberately try to keep a spread. We have a very strong presence in Limerick, Cork, Galway and Waterford."

He denied that the UK property market was struggling at present. "The raw fundamentals are correct," he said.