Report: House prices steady in Cork
Ellen O'Brien
A new report has shown that property prices have remained steady in Cork with the median asking price for the county staying at €285,000.
The latest MyHome.ie Price Report, which was released recently in association with Bank Of Ireland, showed there were 1,335 properties for sale over the first four months of 2024, a 6% decrease over the quarter. The price report revealed that the median asking price for Cork remains at €285,000. This means that the prices have risen by €10,000 compared to this time last year.
Asking prices for a 3-bed semi-detached house in the county rose by €2,500 over the quarter to €287,500, a €7,500 increase compared to this time last year. The asking price for a 4-bed semi-detached house in Cork rose by €5,000 over the quarter to €380,000. This price is up by €42,525 compared to this time last year. The average amount of time for a property to go sale agreed in Cork county is just over four and a half months, the average amount of time in the city is three months.
The author of the report, Conall MacCoille, Chief Economist at Bank of Ireland said: “The message from this quarter’s MyHome.ie report is that the housing market is heating up again. MyHome asking prices rose by a solid 2% in the first quarter, with the annual inflation rate accelerating to 6.5%, its fastest pace in 18 months.”
He continued: “We can see that demand is particularly intense from transactional activity. The number of homebuyers (first time buyers and movers) rose to 44,100 in 2023, up 1.4% on 2022 and accounting for 71% of total transactions. This is the highest proportion of transactions accounted for by homebuyers since 2013. In contrast, household buy-to-let purchases fell by 9% in 2023, no doubt hurt by higher interest rates.”
He also highlighted the improvements and difficulties that the increase in demand will bring.
“It is worth noting, however, that the 63,000 residential transactions recorded in 2023 is the highest number recorded since the Property Price Register started collecting data in 2010. In absolute terms housing supply is slowly improving, but the gap with robust housing demand is growing. In summary, there has been no let-up in demand, and with the supply situation still difficult, it is not too surprising that house price inflation has regained momentum. We expect to see a mid-single digit rise in Irish house prices in 2024, close to 4%.”
Joanne Geary, Managing Director of MyHome.ie, said: “As always, supply continues to be a hot topic for the property market, but we are encouraged by the number of housing starts in the first two months of the year. The figure of just over 7,000 starts is up an enormous 72% on the same period in 2023. Our lack of stock is not something which will be solved overnight, but it is good to see that we are moving in the right direction.”