Lack of new homes is keeping housing market stagnant

WITH few new houses being built Kerry’s housing market is stagnating according to new figures from the GeoDirectory.

The directory – which is run by An Post and Ordnance Survey Ireland – shows that just 1,313 houses have been sold in the county in the last 12 months.

That’s slightly less than the average 1,400 homes a year sold in Kerry in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Of the homes sold in Kerry the most expensive were in the Killarney Eircode Area where 427 homes were sold for an average of €190,000.

In the Tralee area 535 home were sold for an average of €125,000. The Cahersiveen area saw 83 sales for an average of €83,000 and in Listowel 131 homes were sold for an average price of €134,000.

The GeoDirectory report reveals that 90 per cent of all sales nationally were second hand properties adding that the low sales levels in rural counties were linked to the lack of new housing coming to the market.

In Kerry currently there are just 183 building projects – of all types including commercial and residential developments and extensions – underway.

Meanwhile the report shows that Kerry County Council has received just 248 commencement notices in the 12 months to the end of March 2017.

That’s equivalent to just 10 per cent of the 2,492 building commencements notices filed in Kerry at the tail end of the housing boom in 2006.

These notices indicate that a builder is planning to begin work on a project within 28 days.

Over 1,300 houses were sold in Kerry in the last year.