Number of homes available to buy at lowest in 17 years

There were just under 10,500 new and second-hand properties for sale as of March 1, according to the Daft housing report.

The number of homes available to buy is now at its lowest level in at least 17 years and is well below half the pre-covid level, according to a new report.

The latest Daft housing report states that there were just under 10,500 new and second-hand properties for sale as of March 1.

That figure was 24% down on the number available in the first Daft Housing Report in 2007. Of the 10,500 houses available on March 1, approximately 9,700 were second-hand.

Trinity College associate professor in economics Ronan Lyons, who wrote the report, said in 207 months of data, there have only been four occasions when there have been fewer than 10,000 homes on the second-hand market — in February 2022 and each of the first three months of 2024. In fact, between 2015-2019 there were 24,000 second-hand homes on the market at any one point.

Between April 2020 and April 2021, during the pandemic, the number of second-hand homes for sale fell to just 11,600, but there was a recovery in 2022 when the number rose to over 16,000 by November that year.

But he said last year saw a reversal in the trend “most likely driven by interest rate increases”. That trend has continued into 2024.

Ronan Lyons said: “The new low in homes available to buy is driven by the second-hand segment and highlights the very tight conditions in that market across the country since covid-19.

“Interest-rate increases have affected the recovery of the second-hand market. If I already own a property and I fixed my rate in, say, 2021 until 2028, I could face a higher rate if I switch.”

He said interest rates are expected to level off and indeed maybe even fall later in the year. 

"As that happens, and as existing homeowners come off their fixed-rate mortgages, the supply situation ought to improve," he said. 

Perhaps then, coupled with far higher rates of construction, a decade-long trend of rapidly rising prices may come to an end."

However, while supply is falling, prices continue to rise.

The typical listed price nationwide in the first quarter of 2024 was €326,469, some 5.8% higher than in the same period a year earlier and 30% higher than at the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.

Prices in the capital were 3.2% higher. However, outside Dublin the increase was much more significant — Waterford and Limerick cities were both up just over 10%, Cork City saw prices rise by 7.3% year-on-year, while Galway City saw an increase of 9.4%.