Brexit boom coming... but home prices to rocket

ESTATE agents are reporting a surge of interest in Dublin property as Britain is set to trigger a hard Brexit next month.

With prestigious finance firms such as Lloyds, HSBC, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan linked to a move here, analysts are predicting a property boom similar in scale to the Celtic Tiger years.

This follows a recent survey of 200 senior UK financial and professional services leaders that found 75% were considering Dublin as a post-Brexit base, and 60% had already created contingency plans.

Roland O’Connell, chairman of Savills, said: ‘The positive is that it will encourage new development, particularly, I think in the inner city.’ However, he warned: ‘This is going to mean a big increase in demand for homes to buy and rent in Dublin and the supply may not be out there.’

Overseas demand is likely to further put pressure on an already tight market. There is also evidence that some sellers are holding off putting their properties on the market to see how events unfold.

Many of the British inquiries appear aimed at the higher end of the market. Rena O’Kelly, director of residential property at Knight Frank, said she is fielding several calls a week from Britain, most of them looking for properties in the €850,000 plus price bracket. She said prospective buyers are looking at the ‘better addresses’ in Dublin 4 and 6 and upmarket northside areas such as Howth, Malahide and Clontarf for airport access.

‘We’re getting calls from people who are sitting at their desks in London obviously thinking: “We’re going to be moving, it’s inevitable so let’s start looking at what I can get for my money,”’ she said.

‘They want to be close to the financial services and they want to be close to the airport too, so we’re getting a lot of inquiries about the better locations on Dublin’s northside. In terms of actual sales, it’s not yet affecting the market but in 12 months’ time, we expect it certainly will.’

Alan McQuaid, economist with Merrion Stockbrokers, said it’s likely that Brexit will inflate the property market in Dublin.

He said: ‘The truth is we’re not going to be able to build enough homes to cater for this market in time.’ Brexit has already pushed up house prices in Frankfurt as buyers expect wealthy professionals to move there from London.