Homes worth €4.2bn sold to investors and public bodies last year

A total of 12,201 homes were sold to non-households last year,

Homes worth €4.2bn were sold to investors and public bodies last year, with €300m worth sold to companies and organisations outside of Ireland.

The Central Statistics Office said that over 6,400 new homes built in Ireland last year were sold to "non-household entities", which includes a range of organisations such as local authorities and investment funds.

In all, 12,201 homes were sold to non-households last year, a fall of 9.8% on the number bought the previous year with the value 8.3% down on homes sold in 2022.

State or semi-state agencies, such as local authorities and approved housing bodies for the likes of social housing, bought 5,778 of these homes, spending €1.9bn in the process.

The CSO said that there has been a sharp increase in recent years in purchases from State or semi-state agencies, having been at €1.05bn in 2021.

The second largest purchasers of homes came under the criteria of the “financial and insurance sector”, which includes banks, trusts, funds, and holding companies. Such funds and similar entities spent €865m on 2,253 homes in 2023.

Bulk buying

Although criticised heavily for the bulk purchasing of homes by funds, the Government has strongly defended its record of preventing homes from being snapped up by such entities.

In June, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said that nearly 50,000 homes received planning permission with conditions preventing bulk buying to a single purchaser in the three years following changes to the system.

However, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told the Dáil the month prior that bulk buying has actually increased since these measures were introduced and that such practices were “as a direct result of Government policy”.

In 2023, Irish-registered companies accounted for 92.9% of all non-household transactions totalling €3.9bn.

A further €250m worth of homes was sold to companies registered in other parts of Europe with €16.8m worth sold to companies based in North America.

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The CSO said there has been a steady increase in the percentage of new homes purchased by non-households in recent years, rising from 30% of the homes bought in 2017 to 52.8% in 2023.

In terms of sales, non-households sold over 19,000 homes in 2023 at a value of €7.5bn. A large majority of these came from the construction sector, selling 12,899 homes worth €5.3bn. Funds meanwhile, sold over €1bn worth of homes last year.