The country is facing a significant shortfall in the number of surveyors it needs, creating further challenges for the ramping up of the residential construction market, a new report has concluded.
While 2,910 new positions are set to be created for surveyors over the next three years, just 1,829 new surveyors will enter the jobs market during the same period.
This will leave a shortfall of around 1,081.
The Employment, Remuneration and Workplace Report by the Society of Chartered Surveyors predicts that this will be put further pressure on Ireland's ability to tackle the housing crisis.
The forecasts are based on the economy growing by 4% a year on average over the next four years.
"We know the construction sector is facing shortages of skilled workers, but this survey puts numbers on the scale of those shortages from a surveying perspective," said President of the SCSI, Kevin James.
"It is very likely that the Housing for All targets will undergo significant upward revision in the coming weeks, and this is going to increase the demand for all types of surveyors."
"Given that this research was conducted at a time of market uncertainty it is likely that the estimates of future employment demand are conservative."
The society estimates that the shortages will be worst felt in the property area as it predicts around 500 new estate agents and property managers will be needed.
It claims there is an urgent requirement to increase the volume of students studying to become a surveyor and to consider other pathways such as apprenticeships.
To hit the required targets, it says the number of building surveyor graduates will have to be tripled from 77 to more than 200, while the number of land surveyors leaving third level will have to be doubled.
"The construction sector needs to prioritise digital adoption to keep pace with client demands and I believe this is just one area where people previously employed in the tech sector have a great deal to offer," said Mr James.
The report also looks at salaries in the sector and found construction surveyors receive the highest median salary at around €85,000, followed by property at €70,000 and land surveyors at €64,000.
Just a quarter of SCSI members are women, but female representation across the three areas varies, from 34% in property to 16% in land and 10% in construction.
"While considerable progress has been made in addressing gender imbalance across the built environment sector nationally, there remains work to be done to address the ongoing lack of diversity," said Dr Roisin Murphy, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment at TU Dublin, who authored the report.
"Trends in relation to salary provision across gender should be monitored on an ongoing basis."
More than 850 surveyors took part in the survey that fed into the report.
