The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
ACCORDING to the latest research from Daft.ie the mean price sought for a house in Clare during the third quarter of the year was €219,189, up by 17.5% on the same period last year.
Separate research from MyHome.ie indicates that the median price sought in Clare was €240,000, with the county having seen what was described as “”by far the sharpest price rise in Munster”.
The mean price (the measure used by Daft.ie) is the average, while the median (the measure used by MyHome.ie) is the number with half the properties valued above and half below this price.
According to MyHome.ie the median price sought for a two bed apartment was €125,000, while the median price for a four bedroom semi detached house was €230,000.
Daft.ie found that the average asking price for a two bed in Clare was €105,000, with a three bedroom semi detached being €153,000 and a four bed bungalow €289,000.
Pressure on housing was one of the major issues in the 2020 general election and the Daft.ie report warned that the issue has not gone away. “Overall availability remains extraordinarily tight – a testament to very strong demand for homes for sale in the country currently.
“The total number of homes for sale nationwide on September 1st was 12,675 – up slightly from the March low of 11,919 but not much more than half of the precovid average of 22,500 in 2019.
“Compared to the early 2010s, when there were more than 50,000 homes for sale around the country, it’s a different market entirely.
“With Ireland registering population growth and net migration even during the worst of covid19 pandemic, and with strong evidence of suppressed household formation, demand for housing is set to remain strong well past the short- and medium-term and into the middle of the century. Reasonable parameters for population, headship and obsolescence imply a need of roughly 50,000 new homes annually, for every year between 2016 and 2051. That is a need that transcends tenure modes – in other words, the 50,000 new homes are across owner-occupied, private rental and social housing sectors.
“To be on target for this, Ireland would have needed to have built 250,000 between 2016 and 2020. Instead, the country built fewer than 85,000. As the country emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, the chronic and worsening housing shortage looms large economically and politically.”
Meanwhile even further research from Real Estate Alliance (REA) found that houses take on average four weeks to go sale agreed in Clare, while it also found that house prices are increasing more quickly in rural areas than in cities. “The survey’s average of four weeks to sell should be even lower because, while bidding is fast and furious, vendors are not rushing to accept offers,” said REA spokesperson, Barry McDonald.“With an exceptional shortage of stock, demand is being fuelled by an increase in mortgage-approved buyers on the market.
“The rural flight, which began during lockdown, shows no signs of letting up, even in the face of a return to office working,” he concluded.
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
