Property market on move again

AFTER many years in the doldrums, the property market is once again on the move and nowhere is this more evident than in the north east area.

House prices locally are continuing to rise steadily as demand increases and more and more households are squeezed out of the extremely competitive Dublin market.

The latest Daft report shows that house prices in County Louth have risen by almost 17% compared to the same time last year and in north county Dublin prices are up 13%.

Nationally, there has also been a sharp increase in prices around the country with the national average list price in June 8.8% higher than in December. To put that in perspective, prices rose by 8% in the whole of 2016 - and by 8.5% in 2015. If the first half of 2017 is anything to go by, price increases are likely to match or exceed those in 2014, when they rose by 14%.

That year, it was Dublin that drove those trends, with prices in Dublin rising by 21% during 2014, compared to 9% elsewhere in the country. And it seems as though the same pattern is re-emerging in the 2017 market.

As the north east is popular with commuters given the excellent road, rail and bus links, the area has seen a growing demand, not only from the local population but also from those moving further afield. The average asking price for a four bedroom semi-detached home in County Louth is €225,000 while in Dublin the figure stands at €440,000 and in Meath the average price for a four bed semi-d is €250,000. Property prices are showing no signs of slowing down, with the latest figures indicating that price growth accelerated in June, with prices now growing at a rate of 11.6 per cent on an annual basis.