Wexford property prices up €10,000 in year

REPORTS FROM MYHOME.IE AND DAFT.IE SHOW WEXFORD HOUSE PRICES ROSE AGAIN IN THE PAST YEAR BUT NOT AS STEEPLY AS PREVIOUSLY SEEN, WRITES BRENDAN KEANE

THE price of properties in County Wexford rose by €10,000 over the last year according to a new report published by MyHome.ie.

The property report, which was published in conjunction with the Davy Group, related to the last quarter of 2018 and it indicated the current median asking price for a property in Wexford is €195,000.

The figure was similar to that for the third quarter of last year, however, it was an increase of 5.4 per cent on the average price for the same period 12 months previous.

Wexford is one of a number of counties in Leinster that experienced asking price rises throughout the last 12 months.

According to the report the median asking price for a three-bedroom semi-detached home in Co Wexford for the final quarter of 2018 was €169,000,

That contributed to an annual increase of 9 per cent with priced up €14,000, from €155,000 at the end of the year.

However, the average price was still 43.4 per cent below the boom time figures of 2008.

Significantly, the report indicated that prices for three-bedroomed semi-detached homes in the county are now at their highest level in eight years - since they averaged €170,000 in the final quarter of 2010.

The asking price for a four-bedroomed, semi-detached house also rose within the county during the last quarter of the year going from €190,000 to €199,000.

That represented an increase of 13.7 per cent compared to the same period one year earlier and are at their highest level since the third quarter of 2010, when the average price was €215,000.

There was double-digit inflation in the county when it comes to two-bedroomed apartments with €122,475 being the average asking price for the last quarter of the year.

That represented an annual change of 22.48 per cent and there was also an upward change in the price of four-bedroomed, semi-detached homes which for quarter 4, 2018, was €199,000 equating to an annual change of 13.71 per cent.

The report was compiled based on actual asking prices of properties advertised on MyHome.ie and it revealed that the number of properties for sale in Wexford on website fell by 3.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2018, however, it was still up on the same period the previous year.

The average time for a property to reach ‘sale agreed’ status in Wexford is four-and-a-half months.

It’s expected that house prices nationally will rise by 5 per cent during the coming year and that rise is expected to be driven by ‘robust demand’ and rising incomes.

It’s also expected that resolving uncertainty over Brexit will also push house prices up.

The author of the report, Conall MacCoille, who is chief economist with the Davy Group, said housing supply is slowly picking up although it still remains ‘well short of demand’.

He also said liquidity is slowly improving off a low base.

‘Suggestions that the tightening of the Central Bank lending rules would cause the market to stagnate have also proved to be well wide of the mark,’ said Mr MacCoille.

‘While the tightening of the CBI lending rules has been successful in taking some of the heat out of residential sales one serious side effect is that this heat has been transferred to the rental market with rental inflation set to remain buoyant,’ he added.

The Managing Director of MyHome.ie Angela Keegan believes 2018 will be remembered as the year when the stock of both new builds and second-hand homes turned the corner: ‘There are over 21,700 homes listed for sale on MyHome. ie at the moment [and] while this is still far too low to meet demand it is an increase of 15 per cent on last year.’

She said home building is increasing with permission granted for 29,500 units in the last 12 months, however, she added: ‘This is still short of the 35,000 we estimate is needed to meet demographic pressure.’

Meanwhile, a similar report published by Daft.ie indicated the average house price in Co Wexford for the final quarter of 2018 had risen by around 7 per cent to €207,000.

In its report the property website said house prices nationally rose by 5.5 per cent over the last 12 months with the average national price for the final quarter of 2018 standing at €254,000.

The report indicated that the annual increase of 5.5 per cent - equating to €1,000 per month - was ‘significantly smaller’ than the increases experience between 2015 and 2017 and was instead the lowest year-end inflation rate since prices bottomed out in 2013.

The average house price in Wexford, according to Daft.ie, was 65 per cent higher than at its lowest point [since the economic downturn].

According to the Daft.ie report the number of properties available to buy on the market nationwide rose by 10 per cent during 2018.

It had 23,500 properties for sale in December, 2018, compared to 21,200 a year earlier which was the first year-end increase in availability in over 10 years.

The author of the Daft.ie report and economist at Trinity College, Dublin, Ronan Lyons said: ‘During the 2000s bubble and crash, the laws of supply and demand were secondary in the housing market to credit market shocks.’

He said that was ‘not least’ because of the Central Bank’s mortgage rules.

However, he added: ‘The market this decade has returned to the more fundamental drivers of supply and demand [and] since 2013 demand has been strong but supply weak.’

Like Ms Keegan, from MyHome.ie, Mr Lyons said there has been an increase in homes being built - especially in estate houses - over the last year to 18 months.

He said that has helped cool down inflation and he said it’s hoped building of new homes will increase.

Martin Clancy from Daft.ie said: ‘Interest and demand in the property market continues to grow. We are now seeing over 1,000 property searches taking place every minute on Daft.ie.’