Laois property prices rise faster than any other county in Ireland

The price of a 3-bed semi-detached house in Laois has risen by 24 percent in a year, the fastest rise in any Irish county.

A new survey by a property website shows a large increase in the asking price, from €130,000 in July 2017, up to €161,000.

In the last three months alone the average asking price for a 3-bed house in Laois jumped by 7.3% from €150,000. This has left prices for this house type at their highest level in exactly seven years. 

The asking price for a 4-bed semi-detached house in Laois remained unchanged in the quarter at €195,000 but this was still up 31% year-on-year leaving prices at their highest level for this house type since the end of 2010.

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Property prices in Laois have risen on average by €25,000 in the last year, according to the latest MyHome.ie Property Report in association with Davy.

The report for the April to June period shows that the median asking price for a property in the county now stands at €175,000. This is up €10,000 or 6% from the previous quarter but is also up 16.7% from €150,000 on this time last year.

The latest price increase has left the asking price for a home in Laois at its highest level since they stood at €190,000 at the end of 2011.

The number of properties for sale in Co Laois on MyHome.ie has increased substantially by 47% since this time last year.

The average time to go sale agreed on a property in the county now stands at just over two and a half months.

The national report found that while house prices are continuing to rise the rate of inflation is slowing, due in the main to tighter bank lending.

Asking prices rose 7.2% in the year to Q2 2018 – the slowest pace of inflation in two years – and down from 9.5% in Q1.  In Dublin, asking price inflation has slowed to 6.8%, down from 11% at the turn of the year.

According to the report the prices of newly listed properties nationally rose by 3% in Q2 while prices in Dublin rose by 2.2%.  Newly listed properties are seen as the most reliable indicator of future price movements.

The median asking price for new sales nationally is €270K while in Dublin it’s €384K.
The author of the report, Conall MacCoille, Chief Economist at Davy, said that the slowdown in house price inflation should be welcomed as double-digit price growth could not be sustained over the long term.

“The Celtic Tiger years demonstrated the folly of allowing rising leverage in the mortgage market to drive double-digit house price inflation indefinitely. This time round, the Central Bank’s 3.5 X loan-to-income (LTI) threshold is preventing households from chasing prices higher by taking on excessive mortgage debts” he said.