- Report from property portal MyHome, in association with Bank of Ireland, highlights poor liquidity in the existing homes market with the average property being sold once every 50 years. The rate at which existing homeowners, with mortgage debt, move home is now less than half the UK level
- Two-in-five transactions are settled at 10% or more above the original asking price, one-in-seven 20% above. In too many cases asking prices are not an optimal guide for homebuyers – adding to the time and effort required to buy or sell a home
- Report recommends the adoption of online, fully transparent bidding platforms to build trust and confidence in the property market. Disclosing legitimate bids will help homebuyers gauge affordability better
Ireland’s opaque process of buying and selling homes is contributing to current poor levels of housing liquidity, according to a report published today (Monday).
The report from property portal MyHome, in association with Bank of Ireland, states that a lack of transparency in bidding, along with an emerging divergence between the asking price and final sold price of properties, are amongst a range of inter-related issues that have led to the liquidity in the Irish housing market falling behind European countries, the UK and US.
It recommends that estate agents continue to adopt and encourage the use of emerging online transparent bidding platforms, as they can provide greater trust and confidence in the housing market.
According to the report, there were 61,000 residential property market transactions in Ireland in 2024, equivalent to 2.8% of the housing stock. This turnover rate was well below the UK’s turnover rate of 3.6%, itself depressed by rising interest rates and well down from the 4.2% rate on average it experienced through 2013-2022.
Indeed, liquidity in the Irish housing market has lagged behind the UK in every year since the global financial crisis, seeing turnover rates even below those of Northern Ireland, which saw a similar house price collapse to ours.
This issue is most pronounced among existing homeowners with mortgage debt looking to move home. Just 9,000 mortgages were drawn down by movers in 2024; this represents just 0.4% of our housing stock, which is less than half the UK rate of 0.9%.
Among the reasons for this poor liquidity are:
- Pricing: At present, approximately one-in-seven of all transactions are being settled for at least 20% over the asking price. This emerging divergence between asking prices and final sold prices is contributing to an unclear picture for both would-be buyers and vendors.
- Lack of transparency: A recent CCPC survey showed that just 16% of buyers felt the housing market is transparent, and the Commission said that homebuyers were at risk of inadequate information during the pre-sale agreed period and conveyancing stage. Opaque bidding processes may also be a problem.
- Lengthy processes: ‘Chains’ of transactions are not generally a feature of the Irish property market, as they are in the UK. As a result, many would-be vendors are put off selling their home, for fear of failing to secure another.
Conall MacCoille, Chief Economist with Bank of Ireland and the author of the report, said: “That Irish housing supply has failed to keep pace with buoyant demand is well understood; as are many of the challenges, including build cost inflation, difficult planning processes, water/electricity infrastructure and the lack of a scaled homebuilding sector.
“Perhaps less appreciated is the process of buying and selling existing homes is also impeded by an opaque bidding process and the emerging discrepancy between asking prices and final sold prices. These combined factors have led to poor rates of liquidity, consistently below other European countries, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“The introduction of the Property Price Register has brought welcome transparency to the Irish housing market but there is scope to go further. Estate agents are already required to disclose legitimate bids to the PSRA. Allowing prospective buyers to see these bids, via new technology platforms, can only help the functioning of the Irish housing market.”
Joanne Geary, Managing Director of MyHome, said: “A fully transparent bidding process may improve market functionality and, by extension, help to improve housing liquidity. At present close to half of residential transactions are visible on platforms that feature online bidding or auctions, including MyHome Offers.
“A key advantage of these platforms is that they provide buyers with transparent information about the bidding history of the properties they are interested in, as well as giving the buyer the digital means to view and place an offer at any time.”
Read the report in full here.
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