According to the latest Daft.ie Sales Report (released by Ireland’s largest property website, Daft.ie), Roscommon housing prices were 14 per cent higher in the final three months of 2021 than a year previously, compared to a rise of 11 per cent seen a year ago. The average price of a home is now €172,000, 87 per cent above its lowest point.
National housing prices rose by 7.7 per cent on average during 2021. The average price nationwide in the final quarter of 2021 was €290,998, up 0.6 per cent on the third quarter of 2021 and just 21 per cent below the Celtic Tiger peak.
While 2020 saw similar rates of inflation across the Irish housing market, significant regional differences emerged during 2021. The smallest increases were in urban areas. In Galway city, prices rose by 1.6 per cent during the year, while in Dublin, prices rose by 3.4 per cent. In Cork city, prices rose by 5.5 per cent, and in Limerick and Waterford cities, the increases were 6.4 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively.
Outside of the five main cities, prices rose by an average of 11.5 per cent during 2021. The increase in Munster (outside the cities) was 9.2 per cent, while in Leinster (excluding Dublin), prices rose by 11.9 per cent. The largest increase in prices in the country was seen in Connacht-Ulster, where prices rose by 14.6 per cent during 2021.
Fewer than 11,500 homes were listed for sale on December 1st, the lowest total recorded since July 2006, when online advertising was still emerging. This represents a fall of one quarter, year-on-year. The total number of ads of properties for sale in the year up until December 1st was just over 54,000, the highest twelve-month total since early 2020. While supply has improved, it remains well below pre-pandemic levels – with almost 70,000 homes listed for sale during 2019.
Commenting on the report, its author Ronan Lyons (economist at Trinity College Dublin) said: “Inflation in listed prices continues to cool from its mid-year peak. Nonetheless, at nearly 8 per cent for the year, it remains stubbornly high. This reflects a combination of unusually strong demand and on-going weak supply. Demand for homes to buy, which had been strong anyway from the mid-2010s, has received an unexpected boost during the Covid-19 pandemic, with prospective buyers able to tap into ‘accidental’ savings as expenditure fell during the lockdowns.
“Meanwhile, both new and second-hand supply remain weaker than expected before the pandemic. While the pandemic has changed some particulars, the general health of the housing market is largely unchanged – it is one characterised by weak supply in the face of strong demand. For that reason, additional supply – not just of homes for sale but also of market and social rental housing – remains key to solving Ireland’s chronic housing shortage”.
