. . . but only when the price is right. JACK FAGANtakes a look at recent sales
The housing market may be in the doldrums due to the sharp fall in values and the scarcity of mortgages but some of Dublin’s largest estate agencies are reporting a pick-up in sales in recent weeks.
Ronan O’Driscoll of Savills says that despite the perception that nothing is selling, his agency has been relatively busy in recent months.
While the latest property price index from the Central Statistics Office found that prices are still declining, O’Driscoll believes prices are close to bottoming out, partly due to the lack of supply.
Judging from the level of inquiries, he expects more buyers to make commitments in the coming weeks while there is still a variety of choices available. Most of those bidding on properties are either trading up or have sold their homes in recent years.
Families who have managed to get mortgages seem anxious to buy before their loan approval runs out for fear that if they have to go back to the bank the terms might be changed. O’Driscoll says the supply of family homes in the Dublin suburbs priced at up to €900,000 is now “on the tight side”.
Michael Grehan of Sherry FitzGerald is adamant that the houses that are selling are those that have been marked down by 60 per cent from the 2006 peak. “We are seeing more people moving from rented accommodation, having sold a number of years ago and now making decisions,” he says.
The agency calculates that the overall stock of second-hand homes now coming onto the market is 10 per cent lower than last year. Because of the shortfall, the agency is attracting multiple bidders on many properties. In one case there were seven bidders for the same house.
Grehan says last December’s reduction in the stamp duty to 1 per cent on homes valued at up to €1 million is also providing an uplift in the number of families trading up.
Meanwhile, a four-bedroom Victorian house at 144 Tritonville Road in Sandymount, Dublin 4, attracted no fewer than 65 viewers last Saturday. Sherry FitzGerald is quoting €1.15 million for the two-storey house, which would have been valued at more than €2.6 million at the height of the market.
David Bewley of Lisney says the current shortage of good family homes for sale is likely to continue because many vendors believe that the market is not really functioning.
Lisney recently sold a 1,400sq ft penthouse at Bushy Park House in Terenure for close to the asking price of €450,000. Other notable sales include the four-bedroom detached Marino Lodge in Killiney for about €1 million. Lisney also shifted 41 Sandyford Road in Ranelagh, which had a guide price of €1.9 million.
The country house market has also seen significant changes in recent years with many of the properties now being bought by overseas buyers, according to Celia Lamb of Knight Frank.
Two country houses that were sold recently in Co Offaly for just under €1 million apiece in each case were bought by London-based families who plan to use them as weekend and holiday homes, she says. An overseas buyer also recently paid close to the asking price of €1,050,000 for Carbury House, a 4,000sq ft Georgian house on 12 acres in Carbury, Co Kildare.
Lamb says overseas buyers are well aware of the fall in property values here and, unsurprisingly, like everyone else, they are looking for bargains.
