House of the Week: Spoilt for choice with 20 A-rated semi-ds in Clonlara

House price surveys are starting to show what property market observers have been feeling for some months – price growth is moderating.

Sat, 15 Sep, 2018 - 01:00

By Tommy Barker

House price surveys are starting to show what property market observers have been feeling for some months – price growth is moderating.

And, also clearly now in evidence is the brake being put on any runaway secondhand house prices, due to the stealthily increasing supply of new-build stock, much-favoured by First Time Buyers (FTB’s), all aided by the introduction of the Help to Buy scheme, in Budget 2017.

That’s some good news for home hunters, fearful of losing out on a price spiral in this robust post-recovery period, one still blighted by lack of supply both of rental homes and those to buy, against a backdrop of a surge in employment figures, demographic bulges, a reverse in migration patterns, and, for some, fattening pay packets.

Yet, savvy home hunters are mindful of buying, if even the vaguest of warnings talk about market ‘corrections’ have substance. There are indeed Brexit and Trump-related ‘unknowables’ still at play.

Natural caution is once more a factor in cooling price growth, as are the Central Bank’s sensible lending rules on loans as multiples of incomes: it’s having the desired effect, not only for FTBs, but also for those hoping to borrow to trade up who need 20% saved, as a deposit.

Given those competing and sometimes contradictory factors, there’s always interest in price points when a new development or a new phase of an existing scheme gets launched, and interest too in existing schemes to chart the price movement.

New and phased launches are set to flow in and around major cities and towns from this month, as part of a seasonal push and after a summer lull, and next week sees the Kerry Pike development called Clonlara, by the O’Flynn Group, and set just north of Cork city come back into focus.

First launched back in May 2017, and set to total 144 homes in all on 43 acres, there are now 60 sales negotiated; the first 20 homes are occupied, and Saturday next’s release of 20 more spanning four house types will see Clonalara pass the half-way mark.

It’s one of several O’Flynn sites active around Cork, including Drakes Point, Crosshaven (a phase launching two weeks after Clonlara), and Steeplewoods, Model Farm Road.

New, A-rated three-bed semi-ds of 1,237 sq ft are priced ‘from’ €320,000 by Paul Hannon of Sherry FitzGerald, and larger 1,335 sq ft four-bed semis are from €345,000.

Buyers who can go straight for detached four-bed will be paying €405,000 for a 1,500 sq ft home, up marginally from phase three launch prices of €400,000 back in spring.

The phase four prices of the semi-detacheds also are hardly changed from phase three, it appears. When launched in May 2017 Clonlara had a small number of smaller three-bed semis, the Yew, at €285/295,000, but subsequent phases have had nothing under the magical €300k mark.

This current phase has nine house types, all two-storey, and the biggest range is a variety of detacheds, while the majority of buyers are starters-out, or FTBs, along with some traders up.

The Price Register so far only shows 20 of the first 60 sales, thru’ 2018 to date, ranging from €255,00-€392,000, but as they are new stock these figures are net of VAT. Sherry FitzGerald’s own website also shows as ‘sale agreed’ a 191 sq m detached, which had been priced at €525,000.

Sherry Fitz New Homes director Paul Hannon calculates that Clonlara price may have risen by about 4% over the past 16 months.

That’s in contrast to this week’s CSO figures which show price inflation moderating slightly to 10.4% over the past 12-months, compared to 11.9% in the 12 months to June, with the pace of growth slowing most of all in Dublin, and slowing least in Limerick.

The CSO survey also shows house sales activity climbing 5.8% in the 12-months to July 2018, predominantly due to new house supply which rose by 30.4%, against just a 1.1% increase in volume of second-hand sales.

VERDICT: New home sales and delivery look set to dictate the wider market, with the Help to Buy scheme a factor. Might its continuation beyond 2019 be announced in the coming Budget?

Clonlara, Kerry Pike, Cork