House prices will increase by about 5% this year, according to the Bank of Ireland.
The strong growth in prices of recent years is beginning to slow because of a large increase of house building with 74,000 new homes built last year, the bank said.
Almost 22% of the new homes were apartments.
House prices have risen by more than 10% every year over the past decade.
But today, the bank predicted the market had reached a watershed and the trend is going to change.
It said the strong growth in house building will continue into future years. But it added that demand for new homes would also continue as 60,000 more people come to live in Ireland.
One area of real growth in the market will be commercial property. The bank forecasts investors will make returns of 15% this year.
