The scale of the urban/rural divide in the housing market has been laid bare in the latest house-price report to
be published by property website daft.ie. It shows prices rising fast in Dublin and its commuter counties, and to a lesser extent in Galway and Cork, but falling elsewhere in the second quarter compared to the same period last year.
House prices in Dublin climbed 21 per cent in 12 months, with Meath, Kildare, Wicklow and Louth experiencing annual price increases of between 6 per cent and 13 per cent.
The most dramatic increase was in Dublin city centre where prices jumped just under 25 per cent. The north of the city saw an increase of 21.6 per cent, while the increase on the south side of the river was 22.8 per cent. A 24.2 per cent increase was reported in west Dublin.
A 5 per cent increase was recorded in Galway, while Cork saw a bounce of 2 per cent. It was a different story in urban Limerick where prices were down 9 per cent year-on-year, while Waterford saw a fall of 4 per cent.
More houses have come on the market for sale in the past three months than in any previous quarter since 2008, according to the Daft house price report.
Almost 15,000 properties came to market between April and June as the national average asking price rose 9 per cent compared with the same period last year. The average asking price nationwide is now €187,000, compared to €171,000 a year ago and €380,000 at the peak.
The report also analyses the property price register and says there were 28 per cent more transactions at the start of 2014 compared to a year previously.
Lack of homes
“There has been much talk of the housing market being illiquid, with a lack of homes available to buy. The evidence from the period between April and June is that the tide may be turning,” said daft.ie economist
Ronan Lyons
. “More than 6,000 Dublin homes were listed during the second quarter, the largest number since early 2008.
“As a result, the total stock sitting on the market rose in Dublin from less than 2,300 in March to more than 2,800 in June. Further increases in supply will be needed, though, to work through the backlog in pent-up demand from the years of the crash.”
