Covid fuels demand for homes in the countryside
WORKING from home is set to fuel a wave of decentralisation as more people explore leaving Dublin in search of better value homes outside the capital.
Property expert Philip Farrell says there is evidence of increased interest in rural homes since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, with people less likely to prioritise proximity to the office when looking for a home.
Instead, house hunters are now searching for bigger properties to incorporate office space at home, with internet connectivity high on the list.
“What we are seeing now is a lot of people who are being told they will only have to go in to the office once a week after everything settles down, so because they no longer have a daily commute people are willing to live further away and have a long commute once a week to get better quality homes,” he said.
“In some cases, people are happy to look about 150km outside Dublin and have that two-hour drive in to Dublin once a week.”
Farrell, chief commercial officer of Offr — an online platform facilitating the sale of homes — said an increase in demand for rural properties is likely to have a significant impact on the market. He said this is because people have changed their priorities.
“It is interesting to consider the carrot-and-stick approach, because often people can be very reluctant to embrace change.
“But this has been thrust upon us across the world and as a result people have had to amend how they live their lives. There are things happening now that would never have happened only for Covid-19.
“Traditionally, people’s choices have been driven by their commute time, but since the pandemic people have had more time to themselves and have put a value on that. People who may previously have been commuting for 20 hours per week — that’s two hours to and from work every day, now have all that time to themselves and they want to keep that.
“Another important feature is space. Looking on the southside of Dublin, the average for a starter home is in the region of €450,000. You move out 70km or 80km and you can have a 2,500 sq ft bungalow on an acre for the same money.”
This shift in demand will fuel alternative growth levels in different parts of the market, Farrell added.
“This will threaten urbanisation as people now put greater emphasis on features which before now were not priorities.
“The values may not drop in the large urban areas but they will stop increasing at the rate they have been growing at until now.
“This all raises the question of a two-tier market, because the gap in the value of properties within the M50 and those outside Dublin will close with that demand shift.”
Liam Hargaden, an estate agent at Jordan Auctioneers in Newbridge, Co Kildare, said he has already noticed a change in what people are looking for.
He said one home recently advertised was expected to generate interest among a handful of buyers but instead there have been 28 separate viewings of the property in the past three weeks.
He said this has been driven by people looking to move out of the capital or trying to scale up in the market to make working from home more manageable.
“People want to be able to create a separate workspace at home, so they can have that destination away from the living room, the kitchen table or bedroom.
“That might be a studio in the back garden, a converted garage or a granny flat off the side of the house, but space is a big driver.
“Internet is also significant and part of the reason this home generated such interest was because there was a mast two fields away, so people feel they will have good connectivity.”