Laois house prices rise 10% in a year

The average home in Laois now costs  €225,000 as prices rose by 10% in a year, the latest Daft House Price reports have revealed. 

The rise in house prices slowed in comparison to 2021, when an increase of 15% was recorded. Aspiring homeowners will be disappointed to see that house prices have more than doubled(+117%) since their lowest point after the Celtic Tiger years.

According to Daft, prices nationally are now just 19% lower than the Celtic Tiger peak.  Supply remains an issue in Leinster where there were just 2,044 properties for sale outside of Dublin in the first quarter of 2022, down 12% in a year.     

National housing prices rose by 2.4% on average during the first three months of 2022 but in Laois that figure was 2.8%. The average listed price nationwide in the first quarter of 2022 was €299,093, up 8.4% on the same period in 2021 and just 19% below the Celtic Tiger peak.

In Laois, the report found potential property owners can expect to pay on average, €91,000 for a one bed apartment, €121,000 for a two bed terraced, €167, 000 for a three bed semi detached, €314,000 for a four bed bungalow and €334,000  for a five bed detached house.    

Daft found Increases remained smaller in urban areas, compared to rural areas, although the gap is narrowing. In Dublin, Cork and Galway cities, prices in the first quarter of 2022 were roughly 4% higher on average than a year previously, while in Limerick and Waterford cities, the increases were 7.6% and 9.3% respectively.

Outside the five main cities, prices rose by an average of 12.3% in the year to March 2022. The increase in Munster (outside the cities) was 13.3%, while in Leinster excluding Dublin, prices rose by 8.7%. The largest increase in prices in the country was seen in Connacht-Ulster, where prices rose by 20.1% in the year to March – the highest rate recorded for the region since the series began in 2006.

Just 10,000 homes were listed for sale on March 1, another new low in a series stretching back to July 2006, when online advertising was still emerging. During 2019, the average number of homes for sale on the market at any one time was just over 17,500. 

Report Author, Economist at Trinity College Dublin, Ronan Lyons said: “Inflation in housing prices remains stubbornly high – with Covid19 disturbing an equilibrium of sorts that had emerged, with prices largely stable in 2019 but increasing since. As has been the case consistently over the last decade, increasing prices – initially in Dublin and then elsewhere – reflects a combination of strong demand and very weak supply.” 

“Both new and second-hand supply remain weaker than expected before the pandemic. Combined with unexpected strong demand, due to accidental savings during lockdown, this has driven up prices. Additional supply – of all types of homes, for sale but also market rental and social rental housing – remains the only real solution to solving Ireland’s chronic housing shortage,” said Mr Lyons. 

Average  price and year-on-year change for major cities in 2022  are Dublin City: €415,117 – up 4.0%, Cork City: €318,380 – up 3.9%,  Galway City: €335,280 – up 4.3%, Limerick City: €240,655 – up 7.6%, Waterford City: €218,866 – up 9.3%, Rest of the country: €249,507 – up 12.3%.