Demand for newly built homes increased by 114% in May compared to the previous month, according to the latest Daft.ie report. 

For all homes in Ireland, nationwide demand increased by 17% compared to last year.  

Daft.ie Chief Commercial Officer Adam Ferguson told Newstalk Breakfast this demand is an increase in “emails and phone calls sent to estate agents for listings on Daft.ie”. 

“Leads per ads has increased by 240%,” he said.  

A housing development in Newbridge, County Kildare, 16-09-2021. Image: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews

Mr Ferguson explained demand varied according to the value of the property, with properties in the €400,000 to €500,000 range increasing by 1,738% in demand.  

“That seems to be a correlation with the Help to Buy Scheme’s limit of €500,000,” he said. 

The data shows that demand for homes with listings between €200,000 and €400,000 increased by 24%, while newly built homes in this price range increased by 186%. 

Some 18 of the 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland have seen a spike in demand, compared to the same time last year. 

Supply

Despite the increased demand, Mr Ferguson said the same results were not seen on the supply side.  

“The supply side for secondhand homes is down 12% year on year, so we have 800 new listings,” he said. 

“We have we have a lack of sufficient residential property completions, planning being the main bottleneck according to the industry. 

“Overall, it’s [also] just population growth," Mr Ferguson said. "We've seen the population growth for a number of reasons, and the housing volume hasn’t matched that.” 

Rental sector "much more extreme"

Mr Ferguson said we won’t see “dramatic” increases in prices or interest rates following this report – but we won’t see the continued plateauing of prices Daft.ie observed in recent months.  

The statistics on supply and demand of rental accommodation are “much more extreme” than the Daft.ie report, according to Mr Ferguson.  

“There just isn’t anywhere close to the rental stock needed,” he said, which could explain the increased demand for purchasing.  

“I met someone who recently moved to Ireland from New York, and he wanted to move to Dublin... he rented in Athlone and then he had to buy an apartment [in Dublin] because he said there was no other way to live in Dublin.”