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House prices in Dublin rise by €32,000 in six months

The Help-to-Buy scheme appears to have contributed to house price inflation, according to a new report.

90511975 File photo Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

HOUSE PRICES IN Dublin have risen by €32,000 in the last six months, according to a property report from MyHome.ie and Davy.

The analysis shows that the asking price for newly listed properties nationally rose by 5% in the second quarter of this year (a 8.9% increase year-on-year). The median price nationwide is now €251,500, an increase of over €24,000 in the last six months.

The corresponding figure for Dublin is €360,000, an increase of €32,000. This represents a 2.8% increase in the second quarter and an annual jump of 10.3%.

The report states that newly listed properties are “seen as the most reliable indicator of future price movements”.

It notes that house price inflation remains on course for double-digit growth in 2017, despite the likely abolition of the Help-to-Buy scheme. The initiative provides a tax refund to first-time buyers of newly built homes. After some criticism, it’s now being reviewed by the Department of Housing.

The report says the scheme had a “significant impact” on the property market – with the average cash rebate being €15,000.

For the entire stock of properties listed for sale on MyHome.ie, prices rose 2.8% nationally and 3.2% in Dublin. The national mix adjusted figure is now €224,500, while in Dublin it’s €313,500.

Last week, a Daft.ie report found that house prices around the country are rising by €2,000 every month.

Help-to-Buy

The author of the report, Conall Mac Coille, chief economist at Davy, acknowledged that 5% was another sharp increase in the price of houses nationally, but pointed out that prices do tend to fall back after summer.

“The outlook for Irish house price inflation will be primarily driven by robust jobs growth, rising incomes and competition among homebuyers, leading to more highly leveraged mortgage lending.

“The likely demise of Help-to-Buy could lead to a rush of transactions in 2017 as first-time buyers move quickly to avail of the scheme and to a slowdown in 2018 as it is phased out. Nonetheless, the bigger picture is that Irish house price inflation should remain robust, driven by the recovering economy,” Mac Coille said.

Speaking about the Help-to-Buy scheme, he said the 1,679 claims approved to date have cost €24.5 million.

“This means that the average Help-to-Buy cash rebate has equalled €15,000, or 5% of a €300,000 newly-built home. Given the 7,275 applications received so far, the initial estimate that the scheme would cost €50 million may now seem conservative.”

Did Help-to-Buy contribute to house price inflation? What evidence there is suggests it did, as the price of newly built homes is rising much faster than existing dwellings. Of course we have also seen a pickup in lending – in Q1 the average mortgage loan to first-time buyers rose by 9.5% to €194,000 – and this must in part reflect the relaxation by the Central Bank of mortgage lending rules late last year.

Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie, said the continuing disparity between housing demand and supply means houses are being snapped up ever more quickly and competition for properties will intensify throughout 2017.

There were only 21,000 homes listed for sale on MyHome in Q2, down over 11% on the year. This means that just 1% of Ireland’s housing stock of two million homes is currently listed for sale. In Dublin, where demand is greatest, fewer than 4,000 homes or 0.85% of the capital’s stock is listed for sale.

“Not surprisingly, average time to sale agreed for homes has fallen to 3.8 months nationally and just 2.7 months in Dublin. These are the lowest times we’ve seen since we began recording these figures in 2011,” Keegan added.

Sales of €1m homes

A new feature in the Q2 report was an analysis of the sales of homes exceeding €1 million. Last year there were 638 such transactions, four times greater than the 160 recorded in 2011. Not surprisingly, 547 of these €1 million transactions were in Dublin, with Cork recording 21, Wicklow 18 and Galway 12.

Within Dublin, the vast majority of the homes sold for €1 million were on the south side with Dublin 4 (136) accounting for 20% of the national total. Dublin 6 – comprising Rathmines, Ranelagh and Rathgar – had 100 transactions; Dublin 18, which includes the Foxrock area, had 44; Blackrock had 39; Dalkey and Killiney had 36 and Dublin 14 had 28.

North County Dublin saw 20 transactions exceeding €1 million in areas such as Howth, Malahide and Kinsealy. Clontarf also had nine such sales. MyHome.ie currently has 545 listings for sale with an asking price exceeding €1 million. In addition, 221 properties exceeding €1 million have recently had agreed sales.

Read: House prices around the country are rising by €2,000 every month

Read: ‘Time for Dublin to grow up’ – Irish rents are now rising at their fastest rate EVER

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34 Comments
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    Mute Marg FitzGerald
    Favourite Marg FitzGerald
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    Jul 20th 2021, 3:34 PM

    They are not selling food, they are sharing with friends. Regulations should not apply.

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    Mute Jim Buckley Barrett
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    Jul 20th 2021, 3:46 PM

    @Marg FitzGerald: no regulations should apply but instead of closing them down, the HSE should work with them to be compliant

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    Mute Sara McS
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    Jul 20th 2021, 4:15 PM

    @Marg FitzGerald: the regulations refer to food for sale or supply. When food is produced in bulk the risks can be higher. The EHOs have to safeguard the public consumer whether they buy the food or not. They generally work with these organisations to help them improve

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    Mute William Tallon
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    Jul 20th 2021, 5:08 PM

    @Sara McS: The people here who are criticising the HSE for doing what it is legally obliged to do would probably be the first to complain if the HSE decided to ignore those same regulations in relation to takeaways and restaurants. ‘What about the potential for food poisoning? This is reckless and dangerous behaviour by the HSE…’ they’d cry. This situation can be easily resolved with a bit of co-operation on both sides that doesn’t involve exemption from the regulations, which are there for good reason…

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    Mute Patrick FitzGerald
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 10:37 AM

    @William Tallon: There’s no contradiction in criticising them for ignoring such regulations in regards to formal, professional enterprises and criticising them for inflicting red tape and regulations on informal, non-profit enterprise. There’s a world of difference between the two. Where exactly is the line drawn? If I bake cupcakes or brew beer and give said products to friends and family free of charge, visiting their homes and dropping off a box of either, am I to be subject to red tape for this? If not, at what point does my distribution of food produced at home become some kind of HSE-involved health issue?

    That’s the crux of the problem here. From the sounds of it, these soup runs are an informal and casual arrangement akin to making and distributing home made food to friends, not a formal business setup. Why, then, are they being targeted in this manner?

    Call me a cynic, but it strikes me that this is part of a longer and wider move to coral or coerce homeless people into engaging with the formal state system as opposed to living off the grid, as many of them choose to do for very legitimate reasons. Government agencies have for several years been attempting to shut down informal and independent services like this to force homeless people “into the system”, as it were. And that is fundamentally wrong, on a variety of levels. They are, ultimately, attempting to subvert peoples’ freedom by making it impossible to live without going through the “official channels” – channels which involve significant intrusion into one’s private life which many people very reasonably balk at.

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    Mute The Bolt
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    Jul 20th 2021, 3:27 PM

    Just when you think someone can’t be kicked any lower, someone comes along and does this.

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    Mute PAUL BOHAN
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    Jul 20th 2021, 3:18 PM

    Wouldn’t ya think the HSA would have more to be at, beuracratic Ireland at its best

    287
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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Jul 20th 2021, 4:03 PM

    @PAUL BOHAN: Highly paid, underqualified wasters parading around HSE buildings with titles such as “Deputy Director” and “Executive VP” need to feed their power trip some way.
    This report highlights one example of such a power trip.

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    Mute William Tallon
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    Jul 20th 2021, 4:48 PM

    @PAUL BOHAN: The HSA having no expertise in this particular area probably does have more to be at, which is why they’ve left it to the HSE…

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    Mute Mary Ryan
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    Jul 20th 2021, 3:43 PM

    I know the girl Denise that runs the soup cafe. You can follow them on Facebook and see how well they run it and every thing is to a high standard. and you will see the fantastic work they do. They distribute clothes and shoes too. It’s an absolute disgrace that they are being forced to stop! Where will it all end with the regulations. I wish they would take common sense into consideration. The big hungry TD’s wining and dining away without a though for the poor unfortunates.

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    Mute Philomena Stack
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    Jul 20th 2021, 4:16 PM

    @Mary Ryan: What is her FB page? People might be able to make donations..

    29
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    Mute David Dineen
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    Jul 20th 2021, 5:02 PM

    @Mary Ryan: they aren’t unfortunates, they are human beings.

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    Mute Mary Ryan
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    Jul 20th 2021, 5:05 PM

    @Philomena Stack: it’s the homeless street cafe. They do fantastic work.

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    Mute Mary Ryan
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    Jul 20th 2021, 7:16 PM

    @David Dineen: I didn’t say they aren’t human. They have been unfortunate in life

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    Mute Will
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    Jul 21st 2021, 11:50 AM

    @David Dineen: “they aren’t unfortunates, they are human beings.”

    They are both!
    Describing someone as unfortunate does not imply they are less then human. Human beings are often unfortunate in our flawed society.

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    Mute John Scott1281
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    Jul 20th 2021, 3:43 PM

    Most likely the business people around the soup / food setting up don’t want it , its drawing the homeless into affluent shopping areas and they object to it to DCC and this is how they deal with. So sad to pick on the poorest in society.

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    Mute Michael Burke
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    Jul 20th 2021, 5:03 PM

    @John Scott1281: that’s a lost of exercise you got, jumping to all those conclusions.

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    Mute Paul Whitehead
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    Jul 20th 2021, 4:25 PM

    Not a business.. and none of the HSEs business. Keep their beaks in the trough they are already in. You can make soup and give it away free and no one can stop you. Not even Stephen Donnelly or Paul Reid on their combined salary of about € 650,000 a year. I expect they have never used the free soup run.

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    Mute Craic_a_tower
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    Jul 20th 2021, 6:01 PM

    @Paul Whitehead: explained In the article, if they serve food they have to do it to a standard

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    Mute Michael Burke
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    Jul 20th 2021, 3:32 PM

    At this rate they’ll be coming inspecting our kitchens in our homes. This is more than despicable.

    134
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    Mute John Dowdall
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    Jul 20th 2021, 4:10 PM

    Well,why don’t the so called government do something for the homeless?

    72
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    Mute Eamonn Tierney
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    Jul 20th 2021, 3:55 PM

    Hopefully a bit of Commonsense will be used here so this vital service for the Homeless can continue

    53
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    Mute Jeff Nolan
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    Jul 20th 2021, 3:43 PM

    Leave the homeless without food to starve and the kids in the summer camps out in the excessive heat to burn…what a country

    70
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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Jul 20th 2021, 3:53 PM

    I remember Meals on Wheels having similar issues to work with. Maybe they could work on this together? There must be a way to continue – it gives hope to 700,000 hungry people. They’re not going to be in any position to dine out instead.

    47
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    Mute Willie Bill Bryan
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    Jul 20th 2021, 4:17 PM

    Stephen Donnelly answers on a stamp please , not a business in any shape or form , the inspectors families must be proud the person behind the visit needs to be named and explain the real reason for this

    42
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    Mute Craic_a_tower
    Favourite Craic_a_tower
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    Jul 20th 2021, 6:00 PM

    @Willie Bill Bryan: the reason is they are serving food and nobody needed to report them. If they are failing hygiene standards they could kill the immune repressed drug addicts very easily that use the service. If somebody died from this people would complain nobody checked the standards. I think it strange that people don’t think the people it serves deserve hygiene standards like the rest of us.

    36
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    Mute G Bot
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    Jul 21st 2021, 11:28 AM

    @Craic_a_tower: So by that same logic if I decide to organise a community event (such as a family day etc..) say and ask people to bring food along then I would warrant an inspection from the HSA. No sorry I’m not buying that nonsense. They are not a fixed establishment and the food being distributed is being volunteered. You can’t regulate that

    1
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    Mute Sinead Merrigan
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    Jul 20th 2021, 4:47 PM

    As mean as this sounds food safety is also very important. There is a real risk of food poisining if food is incorrectly stored, not reheated correctly to bring out or not maintained at the right temperature. Surely you dont want people getting very sick particularly if it is in a position to harm them more die to circumstances. Haccp certs are very easy to obtain and perhaps an arrangement with the food safety authority could be arranged to provide this training.

    38
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    Mute Mary Ryan
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    Jul 20th 2021, 5:09 PM

    @Sinead Merrigan: they do practice food safety. The hse don’t want to help them. Remember it’s voluntary and they give up a huge amount of their time. They have become friends and are trusted by the homeless.

    34
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    Mute Craic_a_tower
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    Jul 20th 2021, 6:03 PM

    @Mary Ryan: no they don’t practice food safety standards fully hence the issue.

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    Mute Sinead Merrigan
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    Jul 20th 2021, 6:35 PM

    @Mary Ryan: unfortunately it needs to be well documented and provable. Homeless people are at risk from food poisining due to their circumstances and conditions. I have volunteered with numerous services that have required that training and it is very easily obtained. Surely there is some commenter here that can assist or ecen the DHRE or helping the homeless both of which are registered and have access to this kind of thing

    10
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    Mute inflation is coming... buy physical silver.
    Favourite inflation is coming... buy physical silver.
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    Jul 20th 2021, 4:47 PM

    This is what excessive government leads to. Hands up the taxpayers who think their money is being well spent. In the perverse country Ireland has become it is more important not to get food poisoning rather than starve. Congratulations to a generation of self serving politicians for bringing us to this point.

    42
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    Mute David Dineen
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    Jul 20th 2021, 5:01 PM

    I’m not going to look at comments, my guess is leave those helping the destitute alone is coming up, I like to think that my health and safety in a place of eating is covered and I feel safe, that right should be to everybody regardless of income status, lax standards are not going to feed homeless.

    23
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    Mute Andy Dillon
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    Jul 20th 2021, 5:47 PM

    There are way to many of these soup kitchens.. duplicating food runs. Want is needed is more organized services for the homes by government agencies instead of wasting money and resources. The homeless in better than a cup of tea and a sandwich.

    13
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    Mute rugbyanbeer
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    Jul 20th 2021, 5:29 PM

    Grafton Street looks like a war zone,bodies lying everywhere, it’s very depressing

    19
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    Mute Pete Brady
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    Jul 20th 2021, 6:26 PM

    Civil service strikes again. Utter disgrace

    16
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    Mute Denis O'Brien
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    Jul 20th 2021, 8:07 PM

    What about the farmers markets ?

    8
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    Mute Anna Carr
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    Jul 20th 2021, 8:51 PM

    How mean spirited is that? Scrooge at Christmas. Bah humbug :(

    6
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    Mute Raymond Barry
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    Jul 20th 2021, 11:36 PM

    Scared and worried are not words I would use to describe the ” homeless” people I would encounter on a daily basis.

    5
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    Mute Paul Sharpe
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    Jul 20th 2021, 10:06 PM

    I said it before and I’ll say it again – Rules is Rules !

    3
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    Mute Denis O'Brien
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    Jul 20th 2021, 8:06 PM

    What about the farmers markets .?

    2
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    Mute G Bot
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    Jul 20th 2021, 10:20 PM

    Un-flucking believable!!

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    Mute Patrick FitzGerald
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    Jul 22nd 2021, 10:38 AM

    Reposting from another comment: Call me a cynic, but it strikes me that this is part of a longer and wider move to coral or coerce homeless people into engaging with the formal state system as opposed to living off the grid, as many of them choose to do for very legitimate reasons. Government agencies have for several years been attempting to shut down informal and independent services like this to force homeless people “into the system”, as it were. And that is fundamentally wrong, on a variety of levels.

    They are, ultimately, attempting to subvert peoples’ freedom by making it impossible to live without going through the “official channels” – channels which involve significant intrusion into one’s private life which many people very reasonably balk at.

    1
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