Property price rises slowing as supply increases, CSO says
Property price rises are slowing across the state as supply increases, according to the latest Residential Property Price Index from the Central Statistics Office.
Prices across the state rose by 1.4% in the year ending November 2019. It represents a significant drop off in the last 12 months. In the year ending November 2018, prices had increased by 7.2%. The slowdown has been attributed to an increase in supply.
However, concerns have been raised about the lack of access to the market for first-time buyers.
In Dublin, prices decreased by 0.7%, with Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown seeing a decline of 6.3%.
Excluding Dublin, though, prices rose by 3.6% in the year to November, with house prices up by 3.6% and apartments by 3.9%. The region outside of Dublin that saw the largest rise in house prices was the border at 9.9%. At the other end of the scale, the mid-east saw a 0.4% rise.
Overall, the national index is 16.8% lower than at the height of the boom in 2007. Prices have also increased by some 85.7% since the lowest point of the market in 2013, with Dublin prices up 94.9% since their lowest ebb.
Households paid a median price of €259,000 for a dwelling on the residential property market in the 12 months to November 2019.
The Dublin region had the highest median price (€370,000) over the period and, outside Dublin, the highest median prices were in Wicklow (€325,735) and Kildare (€305,000), while the lowest price was €104,000 in Leitrim.
The data is also broken down by Eircode, with all ten of the most expensive areas in Dublin. Outside Dublin, Greystones and Bray top the list.
Moving beyond the Dublin commuter area, Kinsale, Carrigaline, Ballincollig and the southside of Cork city are the most expensive, ranging from €295,000 in the Cork southside area to €342,750 in Kinsale.
Rachel McGovern, director of financial services at Brokers Ireland said the lack of access to credit arising from Central bank rules and a shortage of homes being built continue to be major problems.
There was a 6.9% decline in the number of purchases filed with Revenue in November 2019 versus the same month in 2018 and while the volume of new dwellings has increased - now accounting for 21.7% of purchases - the vast majority of the market is still dominated by existing dwellings.
Access for first-time buyers remains an issue, according to Ms McGovern. In the year to November, 45,192 household dwelling purchases were filed with Revenue. Of these, less than one-third were purchased by first-time buyers; former owner-occupiers purchased 52.7%; non-occupiers, including investment firms, snapped up more than 7,000 dwellings.
"Central Bank figures indicate a current housing shortage of close to 150,000 homes based on a demand level of 27,000 dwellings per year," Ms McGovern said. "Unfortunately this all points to continuing dysfunction in the housing market for the foreseeable future."
