The Professional Insurance Brokers Association (PIBA) has hit out the Central Bank, arguing that lending restrictions it introduced have only served to fuel the housing crisis.

Along with the shortage of properties for sale in the country, Ireland's largest group of financial brokers blames the Central Bank's actions for creating "a lost generation robbed of the opportunity to buy their own homes."

The association has repeatedly called for it to halve the 20% deposit requirement for mortgages, as well as increase the maximum loan amount from 3.5 to 4.5 times income.

PIBA argues that home ownership is an important part of growing personal wealth over the longer term.

Rachel McGovern, chief operations officer at PIBA, said:

"This week's Daft.ie rent report for Q2 2016 provides the latest evidence that in several locations across the country it is cheaper, in some cases considerably so, to buy a property than rent one.

"And in what should be startling evidence for policy makers and the Central Bank, even allowing for a 2% rise over current interest rates, in very many cases it would still be cheaper to buy than rent. This is an absolute travesty for those in the 20s and 30s age cohort especially."