Housing stock lowest in 14 years as remote workers flock to Wexford
AT the outset of the coronavirus pandemic the general consensus was that house prices would fall, that no one would be able to afford to buy and the bottom would fall out of the market.
Yet the opposite has happened.
At the end of the first lockdown in June local estate agents reported record sales, a level of activity not seen the since the boom. So busy were they that by the year’s end the only issue was stock, and the lack of it.
But why has the housing market thrived when all signs pointed in the other direction? And what does 2021 hold for those looking to purchase a home?
We spoke to three local estate agents for their take.
Adrian Haythornthwaite, Sherry Fitzgerald
‘All Covid has done is accelerate existing trends,’ says Adrian Haythornthwaite. And one of those existing trends is people relocating to Wexford from the capital.
‘People have always tended to come to Wexford to start new lives. And now city life is not functional in the post- Covid era,’ Adrian explains. ‘ The reasons people had for being in the city – in that snazzy twobed apartment on Grand Canal –the relationship they had with their barista, their publican, the local Arts scene, those reasons are all gone.
‘If you compare and contrast the lives of the couple in Dublin working in IT, pulling in €200k a year, with say, a family member who’s in an obscure branch of the civil service, has 2.5 kids, lives in a 3-bed semi in Rataoth, Co Meath; he’s better off than them now. He’s got a community around him, lockdown doesn’t hurt him as much as the other two.’
As ever, it’s the beaches, the coastal communities, which are attracting people to the Model County, and Adrian says that, since the arrival of Covid-19, buyers are more keen than ever to move to Wexford.
‘Clients are falling over themselves to buy houses here,’ he says. ‘Almost every single house we’ve sold over the past nine months has had competitive bidding and sold for more than the asking price.’
But while a lot of his sales are to people who are relocating to Wexford, Adrian says the majority do have some connection to the county.
‘I recently sold a house to a Belgian person who had strong local connection to Wexford. The common thread for those coming to Wexford is lifestyle reasons, they will have a better life here, their sincere belief is they will have a better life here,’ he says.
‘ This year I’ve sold to people from Switzerland, the US, Dublin, lots of people from England; the Trump and Boris Johnson situations have stirred up a lot of feelings and people believe things are good in Ireland, that they can be happy here.’
While business was good in 2020 there is an issue looming on the horizon, one which may see the market slow down.
‘According to industry sources we need 35- 40,000 houses built per year to keep the market stable and we currently aren’ t doing that. Stock levels are the lowest they’ve been in 14 years. There’s many reasons why houses aren’ t being built but it’s putting an upward pressure on prices,’ Adrian says.
‘From 1996-2006 we doubled our housing stock in this country, that’s a phenomenal output, so we can do it when we have to.’
And what of 2021, are prices going to continue to rise?
‘It’s my belief that prices are going to continue to go up, absolutely,’ Adrian says.
Roland Morris, Keane Auctioneers
For Roland Morris there have been three requirements at the top of every buyer’s list since the pandemic began: garden space, 0ffice space and decent broadband.
‘ The requirements for buyers have changed, town has remained busy, that’s always been the case, but now there’s more demand for, number one, a garden, number two, office space, and three, broadband,’ Roland says.
‘An office space has become one of the major requirements, people who were used to working five-days a week in an office realised it was unlikely they would be going back to that any time soon.’
Like the majority of estate agents, Roland says he didn’t know what the future held for the market when the country locked down for the first time last March.
‘When the first lockdown came in we didn’t know what was going to happen. I think we all expected prices to fall at the start of the pandemic, but it never happened.’
Instead, the reopening of the country saw Roland and his colleagues run off their feet, dealing with months of pent-up demand.
‘As soon as the restrictions eased we had lists of people ready to view and potentially purchase. We’ve sold all types of property during the pandemic, from €60,000-€800,000, we’ve had a good mix across the board. In some instances prices have gone up and it’s certainly a seller’s market at the moment; the demand is there, but there’s a lack of stock.’
And those buying are, invariably, people coming to the county for a better life.
‘ There has been a lot of interest from outside the county, from Dublin, but the local market remains very strong too,’ says Roland. ‘People have realised it’s more affordable to be away from the capital.
‘ The bypass has opened up the area considerably, it’s approximately an hour from South Dublin to Wexford town now. For example, the holiday home market has changed dramatically, for those purchasing holiday homes, Curracloe and Blackwater had been the furthest they’d been willing to go.
‘But once the bypass opened they began purchasing in Rosslare and Kilmore Quay too. You can buy a slightly more affordable house and be there 20 minutes quicker because of the bypass.’
What does Roland predict for 2021, will things continue in the same vein?
‘ The prices are never going to go up like they did in previous years, we’d expect them to remain level, for it to be similar to last year,’ he says.
Benny Sullivan, Benny Sullivan Estate Agents
We know local estate agents have been busy, that property in the county continues to sell well, but why hasn’t it gone the other way, why are so many people still looking to buy?
‘ The banks held firm, they continued to lend, very few people had difficulties with mortgages,’ explains Benny Sullivan. ‘I was the same as everyone else, I was reading the papers and I thought we were in for an awful time, but it’s been the complete opposite.’
Since opening their doors again on June 8, Benny says he and his staff have been ‘ busier than we were during the boom’.
‘Sales have been fantastic and we’re getting all sorts of buyers. Eventually though, as we got closer to Christmas, stock became low and there was an increase in supply and demand, properties which hadn’t been receiving as much attention started to pick up more interest then.’
Like Adrian and Roland, Benny says many of his clients are people who had been living in the capital but are now availing of the option to work remotely in a new, more affordable, location.
‘Obviously, the pandemic has changed the attitudes of people; they can work remotely now. A lot of people have decided to get out of Dublin and the surrounding counties and avail of better prices here; the commute isn’t as bad as it once was, and there’s a better quality of life here,’ he says.
And what advice does Benny offer for those hoping to buy in 2021?
‘If people are trying to buy I would say buy now because the market is very unpredictable at the moment, there’s no way of telling how it’s going to go. There is new stock coming to the market, and the prices are still quite good.’