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Housing demand ‘falling to meet supply’

Figures from property website Daft.ie show that house prices rose at an annual rate of 3.4% in the final three months of 2023 – the smallest rise since 2019.

Connacht-Ulster recorded the biggest annual increase of 7.6%, with the smallest (0.8%) coming in Leinster (excluding Dublin).

Listed prices had risen during the second and third quarters of the year, but they fell by an average of 1.5% during the final quarter.

The average listing price on the property website during the fourth quarter was €320,046.

Market 'stabilising'

The Daft.ie figures also show that there were 11,000 properties available to buy on 1 December 2023 – down 27% compared with a year earlier, and less than half the pre-COVID average of 24,000.

In an introduction to the report, Ronan Lyons (associate professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin) said that house prices were stabilising not because supply had increased to meet demand, but because demand had fallen to meet supply.

“Supply of newly built homes for purchase has certainly increased, but the second-hand market, which is the larger share of the market, has been working in the other direction – buffeted by changed economic conditions,” he added.