DO YOU CONTINUE to be a bit baffled by the housing shortage, property price hikes and the ever-increasing rental crisis in Dublin?
The complicated forces that dictate the property market can be tough to keep up with, so we asked an expert to weigh in on the most important trends that dictated how we bought and rented property in 2017.
In the first of a two-part series, we speak to economist Ronan Lyons who gives us a clearer picture of what exactly happened this year in terms of how we live as a nation. Next week, he tackles where these developments will leave us for 2018.
Here are five of the most significant developments in real estate this year, according to a property trends expert…
Overall, Lyons says 2017 saw “business as usual for the housing market,” with rising prices and rising demand.
Both sales and rental saw reasonable price increases throughout the country because of the underlying imbalance between strong demand and weak supply in terms of building.
Although our housing shortage is still a major issue, it is improving year on year, says Lyons:
The country needs 40,000 to 50,000 more homes and every year that doesn’t happen, technically the housing crisis gets worse. However more homes are being built than 2016 or 2015, so in that sense, the gap is gradually closing.
Are Irish residents better off than we were in January? Well, it depends on your situation, says Lyons:
People who own their own homes and those renting without any fear of the rent being reviewed or being thrown out are doing well. But anyone moving to the city or growing with a family is experiencing the worst of the market.
And what about the controversial Help To Buy grant scheme for first time buyers, which narrowly missed the scrapyard for Budget 2018? It didn’t really achieve a whole lot, highlights Lyons:
It wouldn’t have been the policy solution I would have picked. We don’t have a lack of buyers, we have a high cost of construction. I don’t think it had much of an effect as prices would have risen anyway but it did convince developers to get into building family homes.
Just this month, developer Gannon Properties was cleared to build a 16-storey apartment complex in north Dublin, a proposal which locals originally wanted scaled back by ten storeys.
“We’ve convinced ourselves that no matter what technology the Georgians had, they knew the appropriate height of a city,” quips Lyons.
While Ireland’s building height restrictions are slowly being relaxed, there’s a lot more work to do before high-rise residential buildings become a standard here, as Lyons notes:
Maybe everything being equal shorter makes for a nicer city but the less you allow people to build, the more expensive the city becomes. The real challenge has been getting that message across to voters and planners – that lack of height comes at a cost.
When it comes to aligning supply and demand, tourists and students have benefited the most from 2017′s developments, as Lyons notes:
There was ongoing construction of hotels and student accommodation this year. The more that are built, the more that will alleviate the problem in the rental market, though what’s coming in next three years will be relatively short in terms of supply.
Though a Brexit deal has been struck between Ireland and Northern Ireland allowing for no hard border, a Common Travel Area between Britain and Ireland, and retention of Northern Ireland’s EU customs union status, the year of Brexit uncertainty has had some negative effects.
That has affected house prices and housing demand, says Lyons:
There will be some weaker price rises (less than 5%) across the border counties, particularly in Donegal. The demand for houses here is dependent on there being no borders or tariffs, and while that remains unclear, there will be uncertainty in the market up there.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say