There is no respite for house hunters as house prices continue to rise, according to a new Daft report.
Data shows housing prices nationally rising by an average of 3.8% in the second quarter of 2024.
The typical listed price nationwide is €340,398 - 6.7% higher than in the same period a year earlier and 35% higher than at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the increase in the second quarter is broadly based, there are notable differences in price trends across the country.
In Dublin, prices in the second quarter of the year are 4.7% higher than a year previously.
In Cork and Waterford cities the increase is closer to 10%.
In Limerick and Galway cities prices are more than 12% higher year-on-year.
Average list price: year-on-year change
- Dublin City: €453,671 – up 4.7%
- Cork City: €363,845 – up 9.3%
- Limerick City: €292,253 – up 12.5%
- Galway City: €402,885 – up 12.2%
- Waterford City: €258,199 – up 9.9%
- Rest of the country: €290,770 – up 7.5%
In Leinster excluding Dublin prices are up 6.1% year-on-year - while in Munster the increase is 10.4% and in Connacht-Ulster it is 6.2%.
The number of second-hand homes available to buy nationwide on June 1st stood at just over 11,350, down 18% year-on-year and less than half the 2015 to 2019 average of almost 25,000.
Since the start of the year, there have been consistently fewer than 12,000 second-hand homes available to buy.
Average house prices for Q2 2024. Source: Daft.ieThe only other time the market has been as tight, in a series extending back to 2007, is the period January-May 2022.
Trinity College economist and report author Ronan Lyons said it's a simple case of supply and demand.
"There's a relatively clear relationship between the availability in the market and then what happens prices," he said.
"The fewer homes there are the more upwards pressure there is on prices.
"We've seen it time and again over the last 15 to 20 years; and with numbers very low now, if it was tight one would expect prices to go up, and they did".
Interest rates and house prices
Mr Lyons said recent rises in interest rates are likely a factor for the shortage of second-hand homes.
"A lot of people in their homes fixed their interest rates at a lower level and they're now stuck in there - for want of a better phrase," he said.
"They're staying in there until they roll off those low fixed rates and that's going to happen relatively slowly over the next two, three or four years.
"That means that there isn't the same of second-hand homes that there would have been historically," he added.
South County Dublin is the most expensive area to buy a home, averaging at €694,602, while Leitrim is the least expensive at €198,869.
