We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
HOUSE PRICES ROSE by 8.6% nationally in the twelve months up to the end of June, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has shown.
Prices in Dublin increased more than in the rest of the country, with house prices rising by 10% and apartment prices going up by 6.6%.
This compares to a rise of 8% and 10% in house prices and apartments respectively across the rest of the country.
The monthly rate also increased, with prices rising by 0.7% in June compared to 0.4% in May.
The highest house price growth in Dublin came in Dublin City (11.7%), while Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown saw a rise of 8.5%.
House prices in Clare, Limerick and Tipperary also rose substantially by 12%, according to the CSO’s data.
National prices are now 10.8% above the peak of the property boom in April 2007, though property prices in Dublin are 0.7% lower than their peak in February 2007.
Expected to rise further
The CSO’s data follows a new mid-year report from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) that shows estate agents expect house prices to increase by an average of 4.5% over the next 12 months.
This figure is up from the 1% increase forecast by SCSI estate agents for 2024 back in January.
Three out of four agents report low stock levels, with almost half (46%) believing the key factor influencing house prices over the next 12 months will be the supply of new housing.
Gerard O’Toole, Vice President of the SCSI, said the clear message from the report was the urgent need to increase supply.
“Our members are seeing the impact of the lack of supply on the ground and believe this shortage will continue until annual completion levels ramp up significantly. A year ago, 35% of agents identified the lack of supply as the main issue for the price movements, now that number is 46%”, he said.
Other factors impacting price movements according to agents include the state of the economy, interest rates and the availability of credit, access to schemes supporting house purchases such as Help to Buy and changes in the levels of immigration and emigration.
Agents are also concerned about the number of houses going sale agreed but are not proceeding to completion, O’Toole said.
“They believe delays caused by planning irregularities, non-compliance with building regulations as well as delays regarding probate and accessing property deeds are continuing to pose challenges”, he added.
Affordability
As part of the new report, the SCSI conducted an affordability test in five areas of the country for a couple on average incomes looking to buy their first home.
The five scenarios selected looked at the average purchase price of a new three-bed semi in Meath, Kildare, Wicklow, Cork and Galway.
According to the SCSI’s findings, a couple with a combined salary of €107,000 and a 10% deposit saved having availed of the Help to Buy scheme would only be able to afford to buy in one of the five locations — Meath.
While the figure for Meath is still negative, the SCSI says affordability in this case could be met under the First Home Scheme.
Prospective buyers in Kildare and Wicklow, however, face significant shortfalls in this scenario, with O’Toole saying “The figures showed the massive challenges facing first-time buyers in the current market”.
The affordability test for a two-bed terraced house was more positive, with the same couple able to purchase in four of the five scenarios without assistance under the First Home Scheme. Only in Wicklow was support from the First Home Scheme needed to meet affordability.
The SCSI also included a rental affordability analysis for the first time, with the report looking at a family renting a 3-bed semi or 2-bed terraced home in the same five locations as above.
For 3-beds, rents ranged from €2,139 in Meath to €2,475 in Wicklow, while rents for a 2-bed terraced house ranged from €1,733 in Galway to €2,061 in Wicklow, according to the report.
O’Toole said, “These figures show just how challenging it is for a family to rent a home in Ireland and the minimum salary level required”.
Responding to the report, Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said “today’s SCSI residential property report confirms the need for a radical reset of housing policy. The report’s affordability analysis shows that a couple earning over €100,000 would struggle to buy a new three-bedroom home in many parts of the state”.
“Sinn Féin has long argued that the private residential development model in the state is broken”, he added, arguing that “bad government policy and failure to deliver affordable homes is pushing up house prices”.
Sinn Féin published its affordable homes policy document earlier this month, pledging affordable homes for households earning under €90,000, though this salary cap was criticised by the government with Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien saying the document “raises more questions than it answers”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Well there’s a new site in Cork they just started on for 66 new homes, free, for Ukrainians, good for them, really…however why has nothing like this EVER be done for the homeless of Ireland who are dying on our streets as we walk past them everyday, me included.
For sure I’ll be labelled as the far right, a racist, normally by people who prefer not to actually listen to what a lot, not all, people are saying regarding this…easier I guess, may feel somewhat guilty if they actually thought about it.
@damien leen: slowly but surely people’s voices will be quietened peaceful or otherwise,the damage is done now its just going to get worse unfortunately.
@damien leen: Maybe you would feel less upset if you got the full story. Name that site and give details of who is building the houses. I suspect it’s not happening.
@Sean Hayes: ‘The 66 modular homes – installed at Rathgoggan North near the Charleville Park Hotel – are expected to be ready for occupancy in September 2024, The Corkman reports.’
https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/north-cork-welcome-ukrainian-refugees-29732072
@Sean Hayes: A search engine is quite a good tool to use when you’re looking to confirm information!
@Sean Hayes: wow…you’re exactly the blinkered, name calling, uninformed folk I was referring to. Thank you for proving my point. I see another good person has already responded to your question, if you could call it that. Have a nice day!
@damien leen: I think some of the problem is that some Irish people want to choose where they live while refugees take what they are given, im sure people will disagree with me
There is a homeless person near me who has been offered various places to live but has declined them because the preferred accommodation is an hotel and there isn’t one available
@Sean Hayes: Should have gone to Specsavers
@Sean Hayes: We should have an edit option on our post’s when we’re corrected.
I’ve made mistakes in the past too.
@damien leen: where is this site??
@Sean Hayes: Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt
@damien leen: watched a woman on vm news, 33 years of age and on the housing list for 15 years, Jesus what ambition, hey mammy when I turn 18 I want to go on the housing list, big problem here.
@Seanie: my biggest regret is never going on it. Going out working and paying high rent or mortgage is like a prison sentence you’re a slave to it and have little income as a result makes more sense to get a council house and pay less. Left over money from both situations are similar so what’s the point.
Notice how they have turned the comments off on the USA weapons to Israel article after 9 comments because the comments didn’t go the way the journal wanted. I’m sure if everyone said Israel was great they would have left the comments open
@Anthony Hilton: Comments only open for bait topics and articles that are part of awareness projects (like roads). It’s been that way for a long time
@Anthony Hilton: Journal is Pro-Hummus, the comments were probably turned off as more people would have shown support towards Israel defending itself
@Kush OMeara: let me guess, The Journal is ‘Khamas’?
@Kush OMeara: defending itself by bombing schools and hospitals and killing 17,000 children in the process while invading another country
According to my mate property agent majority of buyers are from India some estates in Newbridge every second house is bought by Indians.
Hali big complex of apartments in Cherrywood all rent to buy you will be lucky to see Irish person there.
@Artur Filip: 84% of all work visas issued by Ireland went to Indians in the last 3 years – Indians get paid well, work hard and hate to rent – so I’m not surprised they are buying up every new estate.
@Kush OMeara: Although Indians are harmless – the concept of one group buying up in bulk does cause ghettoization in those areas. It creates a little sub culture and it’s ‘cute’ but not beneficial in the long run. Think of Little Chinas in major cities
@Kush OMeara: My wife works with Indian nurses and they not really hard working people tbh.
80 % of staff is from India and sometimes is very hard to explain to confused 90 years old residents when they asked why my family move me to India.
In few years time you going to have Hari Krishna instead of paddy’s parade. I can’t really see nothing cute about creating estates full of one nation.
@Artur Filip: It’s supply and demand. Sineads and Ciaras don’t want to wipe bum and prefer to move to Australia – so nurses and doctors have to be imported. If not Indian, it will be Filipino or Sudanese or some other nationality that you might again have a problem with. It’s not the people, it’s economics.
@Kush OMeara: Sineads and Ciaran have no problem “wiping bums” as well as all the other elements of critical care they provide in the course of their days work looking after the health of the people of the nation. What they have a problem with is employers who won’t pay them what they are worth and overwork them while so doing. The reason they are in high demand in Australia and elsewhere is because they are highly skilled and properly utilised. Why was as a nurse here after years of training your earnings aren’t much better than an admin worker who prob did a 6 month secretarial course. And you’ll certainly earn less than a teacher l, Garda, Digger Driver, etc etc
@Artur Filip: lol! The palpable fear.. what will happen to our parade!! :)
This government needs to help young buyers.
@Phillip Smyth: They never do, they need to be voted out next election! Enough is enough, the power is in our hands!
@Phillip Smyth: the government are actively working against young buyers, they are buying 50% of available properties through councils and approved housing bodies.
@Andrew Martin: double edged sword. The other choice is devalue the market and put those who managed to get a home at risk, (never getting voted in) they just need to keep building, but they do need to acquire a construction company or two, cant rely on private to deliver.
@Phillip Smyth: too little to late, they’ve had all the time in the world and all they’ve done us help to worsen it with the number of people now in the country and rising demand is too strong, they’re best option is to emigrate. What a disgrace shame on our government.
@The next small thing: The housing commission report says that 20% of housing supply has to be social (because almost half of full time workers can’t afford to live independently without HAP) and the government are nowhere near meeting that target. Where are you getting 50% from? They’ve haven’t even met their own social housing targets, never mind the higher targets set by the commission. Workers need social housing built or wages to go up. The government targets are not going to bring prices down, in fact we will have a higher housing deficit in four years time.
@Sill Scoundrel: the answer is bring more into the country that’ll qwell the queues, worked well so far.
@Phillip Smyth: What happens when they do?!?! House prices get pushed up more which we’ve seen before with help to buy schemes……. The only way out of this is increasing supply as we’re over 250k homes in the hole….. Or sellers become less greedy, which won’t happen, nobody will say no to a bidding war.
@Andrew Martin: That’s great but who are you going to vote in instead?
Any help given by the government has a tendency to see house prices increase.
@AnthonyK: Yup. They should stop foreign investors operating in this space, but ‘global market’ etc. etc.
@Thesaltyurchin: the foreign investors have pulled out of the market, that boogie man isn’t affecting the market anymore.
@The next small thing: can you prove this? There’s a massive block of appts in Raheny village with none for sale. It’s an eye sore and does not even benefit those wanting to move to Raheny.
@The next small thing: No they haven’t!
This is a ploy by estate agents to cause a run on buying by people as the market has slowed down a lot in the last 6 months. Clever.
@lastfewchocices: We have a deficit of 250k homes…… There were 32k completions last year, which is what was needed back in 2011, so we’ve been running a building deficit for 13 years……. How has the market slowed down?!?!….. The only way it would is due to COL, higher interest rates and unaffordability.
lol stopped reading when i read it was estate agents predicting the increase. nothing more than del boy in an office.
Huge protests in Australia against the great replacement of Australians by Irish immigrants!
@Alan Kennedy: will the government come down hard on protestors and just ignore them,doubt it.
@Alan Kennedy: B.S.
@Alan Kennedy: No protest
@Alan B: all sorts come here to work, from highly skilled to unskilled. And we need them all – just like Irish people, a tiny proportion of immigrants are signing on
@Alan B.S.
@Alan B: You mean the doctors, nurses, care workers, Electrican’s, mechanics etc
@SYaxJ2Ts: highly skilled at crime.
@Niall English: no, I meant doctors, lawyers, accountants, dentists etc – you should get out and about more often and you might meet some
@SYaxJ2Ts: where will we all live if we can’t house what’s here regardlessof nationality? Will we all move in with the woman in the shoe? This wreckless madness has to stop and immigration must at least slow down until supply meets demand, there are children homeless for f###s sake when is enough enough? It’s unfair to all involved
@Paddy C: Irish children don’t matter to Micheal Martin, Simon Harris & Eamon Ryan, they have proved that over & over, with the number of children & families homeless, actually growing year on year. They are more concerned about all the young male Doctors & Engineers flooding here from Africa & the Middle East, over 2,000 Doctors/Engineers from Jordan recently. No, we must house the world first & the Irish children can continue to be an upward curve on the Homelessness statistic.
Estate agents. A great bunch of lads
When does the government plan on opening the hospital in Ballsbridge to house IPAs? Or does its position in D4 preclude its usage?
Ukraine are the aggressor.
Anyone that votes for the ffg cartel have no right to complain about house prices,health service, etc
@James Moylan: health service is brilliant
The price for new builds are ridiculous, considering you get near zero front garden, no space for grass or to plant any sort of greenery. No privacy as people see right in your front window. Most of the people live behind closed blinds and pay up to 400k for the privilege!
@Caroline D: start a construction company so a build cheap houses with big front gardens and see how it works out
Young working Irish couples on a joint salary of €107K can no longer afford a 3 Bed Semi. €107K is a huge combined salary, as even a couple both on the National industrial wage combined salary, is way less than that, so thousands will never afford a home. What a legacy FF, FG & Greens have left young Irish workers. Shame on Micheal Martin, Simon Harris & Eamon Ryan for utterly failing generations of young working Irish people who get up every morning & work, shame on you, rotten to the core. Then we are allowing record numbers arrive here weekly & according to the recent High Court case we must house them, along with 90K Ukrainian’s & Sinn Fein then making false promises that they will house everyone, Irish & Asylum Seekers. No hope anymore for young Irish workers & no point working hard.
A lot of variation though. Plenty of houses dropping their asking price too in some locations.
For whom the bell tholls
Propert ALWAYS goes in cycles. It can be seen all over the world in lots of countries the various stages of the cycle. The more prices are allowed to surge the more of a drop on the way down. The commercial property sector is currently in the midst of the crash phase. If we had a decent government they would have kept prices and supply stable. They never do.
OZ wonderful place to live a rear children there was a time many moons ago that it was considered to far to emigrate it’s still to far that has not changed but with the onset of mobile phones and WhatsApp and all the bells and whistles it seems somehow not as remote as it once was love it.
Brilliant have a place to live sell and then off into the sunset, great news
Typical
Dublin sets the tone for the rest of the country there will never be enough houses in the capital city to facilitate buyers Dublin is Ireland really.
Journal tell us something we don’t know
have your say