Latest figures show worrying rise in house prices, nationally

LATEST CSO figures show house prices continuing in an upward curve with a surge of 7.3 per cent, nationally, so far this year. This is an increase on the 6.8 per cent in the year ending to August and reflects a further increase on this time last year of 4.2 per cent. A lack of supply is quickly becoming the ‘catch all’ response to this surge in prices, which is augmented by high mortgage deposits. Initially, the latter scenario temporarily succeeded in slowing the market down but this also resulted in more people renting. The latter is another sector which has come under scrutiny with hikes in rent forcing hard-pressed tenants into arrears and in more cases, homelessness.

The mantra so often pedalled in Ireland in the past was that renting essentially equated to ‘dead money’ and this stigma is likely to remain for as long as the lack of housing opportunities and rental strife continue to run parallel with one another. The rental sector is a business the same as any other and the longer housing supply lags behind expectation the more, one suspects, that rents will continue to see an upward surge.

Outside of Dublin, the projected increase is as high as 11 per cent in some places with the cost of a house in the midlands as high as 15 per cent. Closer to home, latest figures for September showed a third quarter rise of 2.63 per cent for the average three-bed semi-detached house in Kerry – now averaging €195,000 – and this is likely to see an increase further adding to what will almost certainly be a stagnant start to 2017.

Above left Paudie Sheahan of Michael Sheahan & Sons with Billy Hennigan, Auctioneer at Blue Bells Grove, Killarney. Further Info: Billy Hennigan Auctioneer, Killarney 087 2354416 or 064 66 34582. Below; Interiors at Blue Bells Grove.