Solid prices paid right to the top in D15

DUBLIN 15 AVERAGE PRICE: €445,000 Blanchardstown, Castleknock, Carpenterstown, Clonsilla, Tyrrelstown, Mulhuddart, Clonee

Change: s 5%

One Year Forecast: s 5% Assessing Agent: Flynn & Associates THE MARKET THE most demand in D15 is for family homes as buyers with an anchor in the area seek to get established. Many of this cohort have been been working abroad and are returning to nest.

“During 2018 buyers were very aware of their limits and that brought bidding on properties to an abrupt end in many cases,” says local agent, Andrew Rafter. “As the year progressed, the urgency left the market, with many potential buyers planning to try again in 2019 in the hope of qualifying for mortgage exemptions. The appetite to buy a family home is very much there, especially in light of high rents.”

The plans for a new school on the site of Phoenix Park racecourse announced last year further enhanced Dublin 15 as a location attractive to families.

While launches of new home developments took some buyers out of the market for second-hand housesin this postcode, many of these are now focused on the older 1990s estates in Clonsilla, which they now perceive as better value.

Rafter predicts that some prospective new developments in the area may go back to seek enhanced permissions on the basis of revised rules on height, and that apartments may come back into favour.

Overall, he says that the prospects for growth in 2019 look positive and says that fears over Brexit will be surpassed by the

desire to escape from renting.

As for the upper end of the market, Rafter says that there is an appetite to buy and do up older detached houses in Castleknock, untouched since the 70s, but the ability to borrow for renovation work is lacking. It is far easier to convince the banks to lend for properties in turnkey condition.