Ireland’s housing stock has hit a new historic low, Sherry Fitzgerald has warned.
A study carried out by the estate agent has found that the shortage is particularly acute in rural counties.
Across the six counties of Sligo, Roscommon, Mayo, Kerry, Roscommon and Westmeath, there were less than 650 new homes built in them last year.
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast, Sherry Fitzgerald Managing Director Marian Finnegan said there has been a “very, very significant contraction” in the number of homes for sale in Ireland since the pandemic.
“If you look at the total quantity available on the market at the moment, there’s about 11,050 advertised for sale all over the country,” she said.
“This time last year, that figure was over 15,000. So, that’s a reduction of about 27% in a 12-month-period.”
Today the government published the Q4 2023 update on the progress of #HousingforAll 🏠📝
Learn more and read the report here: https://t.co/hR6gBywmGI pic.twitter.com/FYnLIXCn2c— MerrionStreet.ie (@merrionstreet) January 25, 2024
Government figures show that 32,695 homes were built in Ireland last year – an increase of over 10% since 2022.
The figure was hailed by Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien as proof that “having a solid plan works."
Ms Finnegan said the number needs to increase much further - especially in rural Ireland.
“Normally we would see urban trends leading the market,” she said.
“When the stock improves in the urban areas, that brings the rest of the market up.
“What we’re really seeing now is that… the concentration of construction activity has largely been in the urban areas.
“We saw 32,000 units completed in Ireland last year and over half of them were built in the greater Dublin area.
“That is having a huge impact on the rest of the country.”
New build housing estate in Donegal Town.Ms Finnegan said she expects house prices to continue to grow at a faster rate outside the capital in the coming years.
“If you look at last year, average values in Dublin grew at 2.7% and the rest of Ireland grew at about 5.5%,” she said.
“I think we can expect to see that trend continuing again this year, with double the level of price inflation outside of Dublin rather than in Dublin.
“That is really unusual in the history of Irish property - we’ve never seen this really happening before.
“It does point to the severity of the crisis in terms of accommodation in rural Ireland.”
Property prices across Ireland continue to increase, with Daft.ie calculating that the average value of a home grew by 3.4% last year and it is expected growth will continue in 2024.
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Main image: Construction workers on scaffolding on the north side area of the Dublin Docklands. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie
