HOUSE prices in Clare increased by just under 18% between the first quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, new figures from Daft.ie shows.
The property website’s research also shows that there was a 2.8% increase in the asking price for houses in Clare in the first three months of this year.
The average asking price in the Banner now stands at €227,645, an increase of 90% compared to the low point of the market, seen during the recession.
While there were increases in price throughout the country, they were particularly noticeable in the west of the country, with Leitrim seeing a 26% increase and Mayo one of 22%.
Writing in the Daft.ie report, Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor of Economics at Trinity, said that housing shortages are widespread in Ireland.
“National figures of course hide regional differences – but if Covid-19 has done anything to the housing market in Ireland, it has been to take a shortage that was concentrated in urban areas and spread it all across the country.
“There has been significant commentary about the impact of Covid-19 on the construction of new homes – and rightly so, given the need for at least 35,000 new homes per year and realistically closer to 50,000 if we are to have, as a country, the right mix of housing to suit our needs.
“In that context, it is unfortunate that Covid-19 hit the construction sector just as it looked as though the number of completions would increase beyond the 20,000 threshold.
“Since 2019, the sector has been somewhat stuck at this level, although the expectation is that this year may see as many as 27,000 new homes built across all three main tenures: sale, market rental and social rental.
He noted however, that the new homes part of the sales market is just one component of it. The other is the secondhand market.
“On the face of it, this may seem unconnected to the supply-demand dynamic, as it’s just housing getting ‘recycled’ not made,” wrote Dr Lyons.
“But given the ‘arrival’ of new households all the time, the liquidity – or extent of transactions in the secondhand market – is a key determinant of conditions in the sales market.”
According to Daft.ie, the average asking price for a one-bed apartment in Clare is €88,000, while for a two bedroom terraced property it is €111,000.
For a three bedroom semi detached house the average price sought is €284,000, while for a five bedroom detached house it is €304,000.