Home sales half of boom time

JUST over half the number of homes sold at the height of the boom were sold last year, according to a new report.

Last year, 55,000 homes were bought, compared to 105,000 in 2005, according to the latest quarterly Consumer Market Monitor.

Cash transactions are now at around the same level as they were during the recession, with almost 25,000 homes bought without a loan, equating to 45% of all transactions last year.

The report also revealed that there was a 12% growth in the number of mortgages issued last year, with 30,629 loans, well below boom levels when 85,000 mortgages were issued in 2005.

However, the ongoing supply is failing to meet demand after the report revealed that 35,000 new homes are needed each year or 350,000 over the next decade.

Increased demand for housing has been affected by a rapid expansion in the country’s workforce, with 430,000 new jobs created since 2012.

Despite the housing crisis, there was also an increase in the number of homes built last year, with 18,000 homes built in 2018 compared to 15,000 in 2017.

According to the report, a further 20,000 units will be built this year, with a further 23,000 planned for next year.

The report’s author, Professor Mary Lambkin said that while the consumer economy was performing, the residential property market continued to lag behind.

‘The property market’s sluggish growth does not reflect the large increase in the working population and the rate of new household formation that has occurred over the past five years,’ she said.

‘While the number of homes for sale has increased to about 23,500, the level of property sales should be about double the current level, approaching the level that the market experienced during the early 2000s, when the workforce was about the same level as it is today.’