Longford House Price Survey March 2022

The price of the average second-hand three-bed semi in County Longford has risen by 3.5% to €149,000 in the last three months, according to a national survey by Real Estate Alliance.

And the survey has shown that 40% of sales in the county are to first-time buyers, with 60% of all purchasers coming from outside the area.

Across the county, the average time taken to sell is three weeks, the Q1 REA Average House Price Index has shown.

“The Longford market continues to push on and sale volumes in the last quarter are strong,” said Joe Brady of REA Brady.

“Supply is a growing issue. In 2021 around 35% of the supply came from landlords exiting and a further 15-20% came from receivers - over half the supply in total.

“We predict that the supply from these two sources is going to reduce significantly in 2022 and onward, as normal percentages from this cohort would be 10-15% - which will have a large impact on the market.

“Longford has no new builds in progress or coming out of the ground because the price levels are too low to cover the cost of building a new home.

“Therefore, these trends point to prices increasing sharply in the area over the next 12 months.”

The REA Average House Price Survey concentrates on the actual sale price of Ireland's typical stock home, the three-bed semi, giving an accurate picture of the second-hand property market in towns and cities countrywide.

Nationally, house prices are increasing at an average of almost €100 a day as the market shows no signs of slowing up in the early months of 2022, the survey has found.

Average house prices rose by 3.16% nationally in the first three months of year, matching the 1% a month increases experienced during the Celtic Tiger days.

And illustrating the two-tier nature of the market, 59% of all purchasers were first-time buyers, that figure rising to 76% in Dublin as people with mortgage approval scramble to get on the housing ladder.

The price of a three-bedroomed semi-detached house across the country rose by almost €9,000 over the past three months to €278,500 – representing an annual increase of over 14%.

The average three bed in Dublin is fast approaching the €500,000 mark, with actual selling prices rising by 2.2% since the new year, to an average of €481,250.

Commuter counties saw prices increase 4.47% – a jump of €13,000 to €305,000 – and double the rate of increase seen in the capital.

In the rest of the country, where prices rose 3.4% to €196,569, the survey found that one in every three buyers were from outside the county as new working conditions enable a rethink on home bases.