Earlier this week MyHome carried out a comprehensive study on the Dublin property market, which showed that both the level of transactions and the value of transactions is up in the first three quarters of the year, compared with the same period of 2012.
The study, which analysed data from the Property Price Register, backs up recent reports that property prices are on the rise in the capital.
Rather than a return to the Celtic Tiger era, this upturn in fortunes that the market is experiencing at present is largely down to one thing – stock, or a lack of it.
This was acknowledged at Lisney’s conference on the Dublin housing market on Tuesday, where it was acknowledged that “demand is significantly outweighing the limited supply” and a call was made to start building to cater for future demand.
Using data from MyHome, Lisney have estimated that stock levels from June 2011 to September 2013 have dropped by 60% in Dublin.
That is largely what is pushing prices up, a lack of availability of good quality family homes.
With only around 3,500 properties for sale in the capital and around 1,500 properties to rent that means there is fewer than 5,000 properties available for the county’s population of 1.3 million.
Depending on circumstances some of those won’t suit. For example, a typical family with two adults and two children are unlikely to be interested in a one bed apartment and when this sort of situation occurs the field narrows even more.
While a lot of attention is giving to the residential market, the rental market could impact on the country’s economy soon if it does not improve.
Lisney estimate that 5,000 rental properties are required per month and MD James Nugent predicts that “it’s at a stage where the CEO of Google or Facebook will call the Taoiseach to say they can create no more new jobs here because they can’t get places for the staff to live.”
With Dublin’s population expected to surge in the years to come, building needs to start now. The demand, whether it be to buy or to rent, is there. All that is lacking is choice and availability.
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