Property price inflation easing but median price of home still six times average income 

The most expensive Eircode to buy a home in the country in the year to November was A94 Blackrock, at a median price of €745,000.

Property price inflation continues to ease, new figures have shown, but the median price of a home bought in Ireland still stands at over six times the average income at €300,000.

The Central Statistics Office’s latest Property Price Index shows home price inflation at 8.6% in the 12 months to November 2022. This was down from 9.7% in October, and from a height of 15.1% in March 2022.

However, the price of buying a home remains significantly high. Property prices are now 3% above their Celtic Tiger peak. From their low in 2013, they have risen just under 130%.

In the third quarter of 2022, the price of new homes was 9.1% higher than the corresponding quarter in 2021. For second-hand homes, prices rose 12.7% in the third quarter.

'Demand comfortably exceeds supply'

The Association of Irish Mortgage Advisors chairperson Trevor Grant said that while price growth is slowing, “anyone who was hoping that residential property prices would fall significantly in 2023 is likely to be disappointed”.

“Logic suggests that prices increase when demand exceeds supply and fall when supply exceeds demand — but this does not hold true in this particular instance,” Mr Grant said. 

“Whilst supply is currently improving with a greater number of new builds for completion achieved and more houses coming onto the second-hand market, regretfully, demand still comfortably exceeds supply.

“There are thousands of hungry house hunters out there whose primary goal is to secure a home and unfortunately, they are all vying for a limited number of suitable properties. Whilst the frenzied bidding activity seems to have dissipated, there is still plenty of competition.” 

House purchases

As prices have gone up, so too has the number of homes being bought in Ireland. The 4,901 homes purchased at market prices in November 2022 was 7.3% higher than the 4,566 bought in the same month in 2021. Most of these (83.2%) were second-hand homes.

However, in the first 11 months of the year, 7,445 new homes were bought in Ireland. In all of 2021, 7,549 new homes were bought.

The full-year statistics for new homes bought in 2022 will be released by the CSO next month.

Furthermore, the final figure for homes built in 2022 has not yet been confirmed, but some have predicted it could reach as high as 28,000, which would be over 7,000 more homes than the number of new homes built in 2021.

In the year to November, a total of 49,982 homes were purchased by households with first-time buyers representing one-third of buyers. A further 13.3% were non-occupiers.

The most expensive Eircode to buy a home in the country in the year to November was A94 Blackrock, at a median price of €745,000. The five most expensive Eircodes to buy were all in Dublin.

Greystones (€525,000), Bray (€465,000), and Celbridge (€424,988) were the three most expensive places to buy outside of Dublin.

The median price of a home bought in Kinsale (P17) was €405,000, which was the highest in Cork. Carrigaline (P43) had a median price of €348,265 while homes in Glanmire (T45) went for a median of €340,000.

The southside of Cork city (T12), meanwhile, had a median price of €345,975 while the northside (T23) had a median price of €260,000.