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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.
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Protected cycle lanes are needed in Dublin. Painting a white line on the road and calling it a cycle lane does not offer any protection to cyclists.
@Nomis Andrews: hardened rubber uprights need to be parallel to every cycle lane
Damaged bumper rather than an injured cyclist
@Nomis Andrews:
The lycra brigade never use the cycle lane in my experience
Try riding a bike to work for a year in traffic, see if the reasons become apparent to you.
@Nomis Andrews: the article says the bus was turning right, so it would seem the victim was on the right hand side of the lane.
Condolences to the family of Mary White. And also the driver must be given a bit of sympathy as well. The faults/reasons in this incident are difficult at best to side on. Instead of taking sides why dont both motorists and cyclists show each other more due care and attention.
On a side note, I cycle myself late at night, but my lights are rated at 700 lumens front and dual 50 lumen rear reds. You should not be driving or cycling if you cant notice something that bright. Was Mary’s lighting strong enough for the driver to notice her? Visibility is paramount for cyclists. Im not trying to say her lights were at fault. A sad incident. Be safe everyone.
@Finn Faulkner: you’re right it’s a tragic and difficult case, but a court of law, having heard all the established facts, found him guilty. That in itself is rare enough.
@IrishSportives.ie: with respect, it’s not rare. The outrage that often follows in such cases from certain quarters usually hangs on it ‘only’ being a suspended sentence – not that the person is found not guilty.
@IrishSportives.ie: Yes, i completely agree. My sympathy for the driver is limited, but he will have to live with that for the rest of his life. He maybe should have pleaded guilty…..
@Finn Faulkner: I believe he should have pleaded guilty, but I suppose he had his livelihood to consider. He also allowed his barrister to try and victim blame the woman who died, but a Garda witness put the record straight on that one.
I noticed that more and more drivers are cutting the corners when they are turning right at a junction. They show a complete disregard for the safety of others road users.
@Vincent: Same with curves in the road too. Cutting them to “straighten out” the road.
@John Flood: yep. Driving to fast to take the curve in their lane.
Very sad.
So deeply remorseful yet you plead not guilty there needs to be a penalty for the not guilty plea
@Seán O’Sullivan: Exactly. If he was that remorseful he would have taken a plea deal and avoided dragging the family through court. He was obviously desperate to save his job and happy to sacrifice them on the way
Life is so cheap in this country…
This Bus driver will live on to drive one of the biggest vehicles on the road, to pass many more cyclists and pedestrians…
Who knows what could happen, the potential is there again for him to kill due to his carelessness, he wanted to save a few seconds by cutting a corner, yet he cut the life of the victim off permanently…
It’s almost impossible to get any jail time in this country if you kill a vulnerable road user with a motor vehicle on Irish roads..
@Dotty Dunleary: can’t see any bus company giving him a job, not after being found responsible for a death, the insurance would be phenomenal.
@edelno5 .: As far as I know, Dublin Bus insures itself.
May you Rest In Peace Mary.
Your soft voice, sincere smile, compassion, and sincerity, will always be remembered by your previous work colleagues at OLHSC.
Very good video by the RSA on just how vulnerable cyclists are when moving with HGVs and LPSVs, it shows clearly how often in the space of seconds cyclists are not seen as they pass vehicles that have by their nature blind spots. Sympathy to the family of the cyclist and spare a thought for the driver.
@William Bryan: hi I am taxi driver and when I am behind cyclist in traffic in bus lane I stay behind till gap in traffic I know there situation :ie manhole or gully or pot holes I cycle for years to and from work
WTF Judge Useless & very wrong let Driver walk free
@Brian Flavin: After reading the full story I disagree with you.
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: i m disagree you
@Brian Flavin: No, you disagree with the sentence.
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: how can he disagree with a sentence if he can’t write one?
@Eoin Byrne: watch out lads the grammar Nazi is about!!!!
1. 13 tonne buses don’t cut corners on their own .
2. Since the driver was Deacon couldn’t a confession or a few prayers be prescribed.
No jail time for killing a person. Well done..
It is difficult for me to accept the judge’s ruling as it was for me to accept the jury’s finding about the Wellington Quay deaths.
@Denis Patrick Gill: W@nker comment of the week, and it only Monday.
RIP to the lady who lost her life. Perhaps we should all be more aware of the dangers to both cyclists and motorists on the roads. Last Thursday night we were stopped at traffic lights on the quays travelling towards O’Connell Street. We had a clear left indicator on signalling our intention to turn left after the lights changed. Cyclists came up our left hand side and remained there despite the indicator being on. Rolling down the window I asked the nearest cyclist did he not see our indicator. Having removed his headphone he asked what I had said. Then he apologised and moved in front of us. What would have happened if we hadn’t spotted him and the lights had turned green? Just an observation.
@Mary Dunphy:
(b) A pedal cyclist may overtake on the left where vehicles to the pedal cyclist’s right are stationary or are moving more slowly than the overtaking pedal cycle, except where the vehicle to be overtaken—
(i) has signalled an intention to turn to the left and there is a reasonable expectation that the vehicle in which the driver has signalled an intention to turn to the left will execute a movement to the left before the cycle overtakes the vehicle,
SOURCE: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2012/si/332/made/en/print
One can deduce with certainty that the vehicle you were travelling in was stationary at the traffic lights by way of your observation that whilst stopped at the traffic lights, “cyclists came down our left hand side and remained there”. This certainty is further supplemented by the fact you were able to engage in conversation with one of them at the traffic lights.
“What would have happened if we hadn’t spotted him and the lights had turned green?”
Goodness knows but should a driver of a vehicle turn left in the very circumstances you describe above, s/he would be fully liable for any collisions that may occur on grounds of negligent driving.
@Mary Dunphy: You need some driving lessons love. Indicators do not and never have allowed priority. It’s amazing you don’t know this.
So Mary Dunpy came to a story about an incompetent driver to declare that she’s an incompetent driver.
@Bob Moore: As you may not have noticed I was not driving at the time. We did indeed notice the cyclist and asked if he had seen that we were indicating to turn left. Having removed his headphones he admitted he hadn’t as he was feeling quite tired at the time. It was merely a point in observation which was applied to both motorists and cyclists and obviously you have some type of chip on your shoulder if this is your nasty reaction to an observation. There was never any danger to the cyclist under the circumstances so what’s your point?
@Mary Dunphy: “what’s your point?”
You came to a story about an incompetent driver to declare that you’re an incompetent driver.
Incredibly sad. She had all the “necessary” equipment and yet it proved to be no use against careless driving. The sentence handed down by the judge is bitterly disappointing.
My thoughts are with her family and friends, justice wasn’t served.
@C Moloney:
Bus driver is still on the roads. The courts allowed a killer bus driver to carry on over Christmas.
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