93% of people believe the Government should be doing more to tackle the housing crisis, according to a new survey.

The MyHome.ie Consumer Sentiment Survey released today shows that people want to see the construction of more social and affordable homes.

It also found more than 60% expect house prices to rise by 5% or more in the next 12 months.

According to the survey, 42% expect prices will rise by up to 5%, 18% believe they will rise by between 5 and 10% while 4% expect them to rise by over 10%.

However, the survey of 1,700 people also found that a significant 20% believe they will remain unchanged while 15% expect them to fall.

40% of those surveyed said they expected to buy a new home in the next 12 months, with 34% saying they were undecided and 26% saying they had no plans to buy.

Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie. said the findings reflected widespread dissatisfaction with the Government’s handling of the housing crisis.

“Given that the Taoiseach has already said the Government would be judged on how it deals with the housing crisis, the fact that the overwhelming majority of people believe they should be doing more, will no doubt be a concern," she said.

According to the survey 31% of First Time Buyers were aged between 25 and 30 while 29% were in the 31 to 35 age group with a further 16% in the 36 to 40 cohort.

"It was also interesting to see that while awareness of the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme was quite high amongst first time buyers at 72%, the awareness of other schemes such as Rebuilding Ireland Home Loans and Mortgage Allowance Scheme was much lower at 12%, while awareness of the Shared Ownership Scheme was lower again at 4%.”

Ms Keegan said the rising age profile of the group had been a recurring feature of surveys in recent years due in the main to the shortage of affordable housing.

72% of First Time Buyers said the biggest challenge they faced was finding the right property, while 17% said it was meeting the required deposit for a new home.

"While two thirds of FTBs were renting, a third were still living at home and that has also been a feature of family life over the past decade as younger buyers live at home longer in order to save for a deposit," she said.