Prices will likely remain static in D9 for year ahead
DUBLIN 9 AVERAGE PRICE: €550,000 Drumcondra, Glasnevin, Santry, Beaumont, Whitehall Change: s 5%
One Year Forecast: No change Assessing Agent: Kelly Bradshaw Dalton THE MARKET CONVEYANCING delays are now a big feature of the market in Dublin 9, with transactions taking an average of four months from the acceptance of an offer to closing.
Local agent Vincent Kelly says the delays are a result of a strong recovery in the market.
“It can be hard to manage,” he says. “The economic upturn means more people - buyers, vendors, solicitors, agents - take more holidays, and it slows things down. It’s really down to vendors and their agents to try and ensure that all the documentation is ready to go before a property is placed on the market.”
In common with many other areas in Dublin, 2018 started out with a strong and active market in Dublin 9.
Attendances at viewings were consistent with the previous year (2017) until the end of the second quarter, but things slowed right down in terms of the number of transactions in the third quarter, with a ‘little bounce’ towards the end of November/beginning of December. Kelly reports strong attendance at viewings right up until the week before Christmas last year.
“The major difficulty we had was in managing expectations, once values had stabilised and stopped increasing.”
There was not much in the way of new housing in Dublin 9 last year, although the Hampton development on Gracepark Road in Drumcondra came to market.
“For first and second-time buyers the estates built by Sheelin Homes at Charlemont on Griffith Avenue in Drumcondra and Collinswood on Collins Avenue are very popular,” notes Kelly. “As against a brand new house, purchasers get to move into an attractive established community. Charlemont in particular is close to great schools.”
In general, the older red-brick houses on the primary roads of Dublin 9 such as Iona are more expensive than houses on estates.
The average price for a four-bedroom semi-detached house in the table opposite refers to one of these period houses as there are more of them in Dublin 9 than there are more modern four-bedroom semi-detached houses on estates, which would be valued at an average of €600,000.
Kelly notes that mews were popular with those trading down and showed a good increase in value over the past twelve months.
Apartments at Griffith Hall and Hampton Lodge were also sought after by down-sizers.
Kelly says that there are very few large detached houses on their own grounds in Dublin 9, and that sales of these were ‘few and far between’ during 2018.
In terms of what lies in store during the course of 2019, Kelly says that he, like everyone else, would like Brexit over so that there can be a stable market, and that recovery remains affordable.
He predicts a small bounce early in the year, but taking the year as a whole expects prices in Dublin 9 to remain relatively static.