Coastal homes continue to add value
This modest bungalow (to the right of the photo) at Dirk Cove, near Galley Head/Clonakilty, is guided at €595,000 by Hodnett Forde.
WILL Ireland’s protracted summer heatwave do for seaside living and coastal property what the coronavirus pandemic did six years ago? Drive up demand, and thus prices, as it did, well in excess of nationwide averages?
It very well might, after record numbers of us thronged our beaches and coves to cool down by the water’s edge over the protracted scorcher spell.
Covid and its lockdowns and the sudden ability many, many firms and workers had to pivot to remote working drove up demand for more removed homes, to places with lots of fresh air and fewer folk, lifestyle amenities and beaches by the bucket and spade-load.
A Daft survey of 120,000 sale listings looked back at the impact covid had had on the property market by comparing rises in values (primarily asking prices, but also scanning later sales figure too) pre- and post-pandemic: coastal listings had a 22.9% surge from the start of 2019 to April 2021, compared to a national rise of 8.6%.
The rises both in national and coastal values during that challenging period confounded observers at the time, as the market’s post-crash with year-on-year inflation had started to ease off in many cases, and prices and affordability were in reasonable synch. Economists and commentators initially predicted the pandemic was expected to depress prices, not drive then on.
Nationally, values have continued their upward trajectory right up to now, as affordability is stretched even more than ever before, with the CSO reckoning that nationwide property increases since the coronavirus have averaged 45% to 50%.
There’s no separate statistical category for coastal homes, though (that’s why the sector’s targeted 2021 Daft report had its own currency as a ‘moment-in-time’ snapshot, and it’s often reported that well-located seaside homes can command a 10% to 15% premium over more inland listing within the same counties.
But, it’s not all even either: the immediate post-covid surge was strongest near Dublin, in counties like Wexford and Waterford, by 50% to 54%, while the likes of Schull in West Cork, c 90 minutes from Cork city, saw a 33%% rise. Around Limerick, Lahinch got a bump of c 40%, as did Galway’s Letterfrack and Renvyle.
The online resource Property Data (propertydata.ie) highlighted a price rift between coastal towns on the East Coast and those on the Atlantic coast, finding a 35% premium for 13 Dublin coastal communities vs the Dublin county median, while noting “remote Atlantic towns often trade below their county median.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Property Data report noted that chi-chi Dalkey, with its €1.05 median, was 132.2 % over the Dublin median….and if the same report is done next year, it will be interesting to see how one particular sale might skew the sums, as just sold in recent months was Inniscorrig Castle, a Victorian/Gothic revival mansion on the posh Coliemore Road in Dalkey, selling for a reported €15.2 million.
Inniscorrig is on 0.75 of an acre and most unusually not only has water frontage but has its own small harbour. (It last sold in 2018 for recorded €7.8 million, so the upgrade works done since have seen it sell for close to twice its pre-pandemic price tag.
Curiously, the same report (based on 2024/2025 data) noted that Cork's 13 coastal towns averaged below the county median, at an overall −2.4% variance.
It put the remote Castletownshend (nearly two hours drive from Cork city and airport) where the median was put at €192,000 at -41% below the Co Cork median which they put at €327,500); Youghal on the other side of the county and on the Celtic Sea at -25%, Bantry at -23.3%, Glengarriff at -22.1%, whilst around Cork harbour communities like Cobh at -11.5%, Ringaksiddy at -8.5%, Passage West at -2.3%, and Whitegate at just -1.3% below the county median.
Figures for areas like West Cork’s Clonakilty, Ballydehob and Skibbereen, on an estuary, and the likes of Baltimore village weren’t given in the survey, but could be expected to have median values at or over the Cork county median of €327,500.
The Property Data survey also showed Atlantic counties Mayo and Clare also having coastal sales at -8.5% each below the county median, observing “the sea view comes with a discount when there are no jobs within an hour's drive.”
Well ahead of their county medians were coastal sales were Galway (county median at €330,000) and Kerry (county median there was put at €255,000).
However, absolute top of the heap was Sligo with a 150.8% gulf thanks to the likes of Strandhill (surfing) and Rosses Point (sailing and golf)as lifestyle attractions, with a coastal value median at €580,00, vs the Sligo county median at €231,250.
The report’s authors made the comment: “The exception proves the rule when it comes to surf and lifestyle towns like Strandhill and Dingle, as “what they share is a reputation that draws buyers from outside the county. The premium isn't the sea — it's the brand.”
With such lifestyle places clearly in hot demand, it remains to be seen how the increasing occurrence of heatwaves at home and abroad, and other impacts of climate change might add another price fillip to an already overheated house market…
