Dublin’s house prices have seen an increase since the start of the year, but Irish property price increases have been higher in the western part of Ireland, up by 20%. The places include Galway, Roscommon and Mayo.
There is no fixed explanation as to why the Irish property prices have gone up so much. According to a spokesman for the Central Statistics Office (CSO), it is believed that it could be to do with the region going through an increase in demand. In whole, the property market is about 30% below where it was before when the crash hit Ireland in 2007.
Prices are expected to continue increasing until supply starts to increase, according to the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers. More houses and apartments need to be built to keep up with such high demands. The property market is feeling a strain – perhaps the Irish property market needs more developers and builders so that the overall property market can expand and grow steadily.
Pat Davit, Chief executive, said: “”There are only a few large operators building residential in Dublin city.
“This lack of competition is fuelling price growth and also dictating a tendency to build in areas that can command higher prices.”
The big blockages to building houses include the lack of education around the cost of construction, the inability of small and amateur builders and developers in accessing suffice money and valuable interest rates and a lack of competition in the lending market.
An Irish property market report was released and shows concerns that the Department of Housing data on house completions is inaccurate. It showed that 14,932 homes were finished and ready for the market in 2016. However, this may include empty houses and many of them may have insecure connections with electricity.
Eoin O Broin, a spokesman at Sinn Fein, said that the Government’s numbers could be inflated by 50% in the foreseeable future.
He said: “If the Minster for Housing (Simon Coveney) genuinely wants to reach his target of 25,000 new homes by 2021, he has a duty to publish the most accurate housing completion figures he can.
“The department must publish accurate quarterly completion figures in order to assess its true progress towards reaching this target.”
The CSO report highlighted that 37,294 homes were bought in the 12 months up until the end of February and a quarter of those purchases were by first-time buyers. 23% were by people or investors who plan to not live in the Irish property at all.
Another interesting fact about the property market is revealed in the CSO report – showing that the average price of a home in Dublin was €398,319. The cheapest county in Ireland to buy a home in is in Longford and the average property price is €87,584.
It has been thought that property price house inflation is well on track for double digits this year, so all in all, it is an interesting year for the Irish property market that is yet to unfold as the year goes on.
Written by Gemma Smith
