Embargo: 00.01 am Monday 30th September 2019 - The annual rate of asking price inflation for houses was just 0.3% to the end of Quarter 3 and is expected to be close to zero by the end of the year, according to the latest house price report from MyHome.ie.
The average asking price for houses nationally during Q3 itself was €269,000 – down 2.8% on the previous quarter. In Dublin the average figure was down 1.4% in the quarter to €376,000.
MyHome.ie is the country’s leading property website. In conjunction with Davy, the company produces quarterly reports on asking prices for residential properties. The latest report covers Q3 (July, August and September).
The author of the report, Conall MacCoille, Chief Economist at Davy, said that while Quarter 3 (which covers the traditionally quieter Summer months) often shows a softening in prices, the decline of 2.8% in the national figure in this report is higher than usual.
MacCoille said the slowdown is linked to the CBI macro prudential guidelines on mortgage lending and Brexit. He said; “We believe it primarily reflects constraints on home buyers leverage from the Central Bank of Ireland’s mortgage lending rules, now accompanied by the uncertainty of Brexit.”
MacCoille said that the slowdown does not imply that housing supply has caught up with demand; “There were 19,300 housing completions in the year to June 2019 but we believe natural household formation is at least 30,000 per annum if not higher...well in excess of current homebuilding levels.”
Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie noted that while asking price growth is softening, other key indicators are increasing; “the volume of recorded house price sales continues to grow, rents continue to rise, mortgage lending is up and there was an increase of some 6% in the number of new properties on the market (via MyHome.ie) at 10,846. In total there were some 23,700 properties listed on the site in September which is 4.7% up on the year and is the higher number of properties listed since mid 2015.”
