Prices Continue to Rise

Residential property prices continued to rise in Tramore throughout 2015 and during the first two months of 2016. Prices rose by as much as 15% during 2015 for properties up to €200,000. At the higher end, for properties in the €300k + region, price growth has been lower, around 6%. This has been no doubt due to the impact of the Central Bank’s mortgage restrictions meaning that second time buyers must come up with 20% of a deposit. For the generation who are trying to trade up to a larger family home coming up with €60 to €70,000 deposit plus transaction fees is extremely difficult when in most cases these type of buyers either have very little positive equity or possibly negative equity in their existing home.

The popularity of Tramore as a place to live is continuing to soar with many people from outside the area wanting to move here for the quality of life we are lucky to enjoy. This is one of the reasons I expect prices to continue to grow during 2016, albeit at a slower pace than the previous two years. Supply issues and restrictive mortgage rules will continue to make the search for a dream home a frustrating experience for many buyers. Unfortunately nine years after the start of the property crash we still don’t have a properly functioning market.    

Nationally, residential property prices grew by 6.6% in 2015, significantly lower than the 16.3% recorded in 2014. The slowdown in price growth was caused by a cooling off in the Dublin market with prices there rising only 2.6% in the year. Excluding the Dublin market prices in the Rest of Ireland were 10.2% higher than in 2014.  By the end of 2015 the price of residential property in the Rest of Ireland was 35.4% lower than their highest level in September 2007.

Barry Herterich BA MIPAV REV