According to property website Daft.ie, Ireland is seeing an “unprecedented” lack of houses for sale online, with average prices increasingly sharply since last year.
According to the Irish House Price Report for Q1 in 2022, nationally average house prices rose 8.4% nationally since last March, partially due to inflation.
While Covid-19 initially reduced house prices, by the second quarter of 2020 this trend had reversed. Now house prices have increased quarter-on-quarter for seven quarters in a row – a record streak never seen before.
The report identifies the government’s closure of the construction industry under Covid restrictions as a major contributing factor to rising house costs.
The Central Bank estimates that 34,000 houses will need to be built every year of the 2020s to satisfy housing demand, and the ESRI estimates that 33,000 are needed.
Instead, only around 20,500 new dwellings were built in 2020 according to the CSO. Less again were built in 2021, at around 20,400.
This, naturally, has negatively affected house prices.
According to Tom Parlon, Director General of the Construction Industry Federation, Ireland was “the only country” to shut down its construction industry over Covid-19.
The national average house price is now €299,093. The most expensive dwellings in the country are in South County Dublin, at an average price of €644,165. The cheapest are in Leitrim (€165,799), Longford (€174,243) and Roscommon (€175,526).
According to a new Irish Independent report, house prices are increasing in Ireland by as much as €100 per day, approaching Celtic Tiger levels.
House prices soaring by €100 a day as property heats up to boom-time levels https://t.co/VfnHNGiasp
— Irish Independent (@Independent_ie) March 28, 2022