Dublin: According to Sherry Fitzgerald, price growth in the state's housing market continues to slow amid high borrowing costs and a modest pick-up in supply.
Nationally, prices for second-hand homes rose 1.1 per cent in the third quarter and 5.5 per cent in the first nine months of 2022, the estate agent said. This compares to a growth of 7.1 percent during the same period last year.
In Dublin, the uplift in values was just 0.9 per cent in the third quarter, the slowest level of quarterly growth seen in the market in nearly two years. Price growth outside Dublin was stronger at 1.3 per cent quarter on quarter.
Real estate markets the world over have begun to cool in response to wider inflationary pressures and higher interest rates, which make mortgages more expensive.
According to Marian Finnegan, managing director of Sherry FitzGerald, "the slowing in the speed of price growth, which began to show during the second quarter of this year, has remained during quarter three."
"Although demand is still strong, the frenetic bidding that characterised the post-pandemic period has subsided. A more controlled pace of price increases has been achieved as a result, she added, along with a minor increase in the availability of used homes for sale.
According to the company's most recent report, there were 15,300 used homes available nationally in July, an increase of 1,800 homes over the previous year.
Despite this expansion in supply, the quantity of homes offered for sale in July only made up 0.8% of the total housing stock, which is low by global standards.
Additionally, according to the statement, the headline figure was 26%, or 7,900 homes, lower than the "more normalised pre-Covid trading period" of July 2019.
The imbalance between supply and demand was one of the major issues facing Ireland's housing market in the years before the Covid-19 crisis, according to Ms. Finnegan.
Although there have been slight gains in supply year over year, the overall stock of houses available for sale remains close to record low levels, according to the expert. "The pandemic and following geo-political unrest have served to compound this supply problem," she added.
Sherry FitzGerald reported that, excluding block sales and newly purchased properties for social housing, there were approximately 26,240 sales listed on the property price register (PPR) in the first half of 2022, an increase of 8% over the same time in 2018 and 9% over the same period in 2019.
The housing issue in Ireland, according to Ms. Finnegan, is "deep entrenched and multifaceted."
"Budget 2023 was the ideal time for the Government to confront the situation, but regrettably it not only failed to announce any significant policy adjustments but also absurdly placed a 10% charge on concrete blocks, which is unquestionably paradoxical in the current climate," she said.
Ms.Finnegan also said the introduction of €500 tax credits for renters would have a limited impact on affordability.
