€10m spend on housing in Shannon in first six months of year

JUST under €10 million was spent on residential property in Shannon town in the first six months of the year.

According to figures from the Residential Property Price Register, there were 46 transactions during the first half of 2022, with a total spend of €9,978,750. That gives a mean price of €216,929.

April was the quietest month of the year, with a mere four transactions, while there were nine in January and May and eight in each of the other three months.

The largest sum paid was €560,000 for a house at Tullyglass Hill. The least costly transaction, for which full market price was still paid, was the sale of a property at Brú na Sionna for €90,000.

The level of activity seems to be slightly higher than pre-pandemic, with the 46 transactions in the first half of 2022 slightly more than the 38 in the first half of 2019.

Councillor Gerry Flynn said that there are finally some private developments on the way for Shannon, and that there has been an imbalance between private and social housing in the town.

“There have been two approvals for private development, if those come to pass it’d be about 100 units and the developer has said categorically that none of these houses will be sold onto the Council for social housing or onto approved bodies, which has been the norm with a lot of developers.

“People are happy to see an application going in for private houses, but they may not be delighted with another tranche of social housing in an area that has been saturated for many years with social housing.

“For people who need to buy their own house, they can’t do it. It’s probably 12 to 14 years since the last private scheme was done in Shannon.”

He said people who wanted to live in Shannon haven’t been able to do so because of the lack of private as opposed to social development.

“Many people, including some of my own family, have found there were no available houses and have to leave the area.

“You need to have a mixture of houses available, Shannon always had a mixture, the social element, the private element and it worked well for many years.

“I’m like a broken record on this, and it’s not that I want to be negative, but since the Council took over in 2004 we’ve had serious slippage.

“Business people that come to the town, or new families coming up who want to buy a house can’t do it and they have to leave Shannon.

“You’re left with a situation where it’s predominantly social housing and a lot of support is needed for social housing.”

He said that while there has been a greater focus on social housing rather than private in the town, there is still a shortage.

“The social housing need is not getting better, it’s getting worse. There are more and more people looking for social housing in the town of Shannon.

“Money has been spent on it, but it’s still only scratching the surface.”