Demand for holiday homes soars as travel restrictions ease

EVERY third email Lisa Kearney sees popping up on her screen is about a holiday home.

The director at Rooney Auctioneers said people are “desperately looking to buy, build, or relocate”.

“It’s impossible to get anything. I have people ringing me, meeting me on the street, asking me if I have something to rent or sell, even a site to build something such is the demand for staycations,” said Ms Kearney.

The earlier than expected date for inter-county travel of May 10 has whetted people’s appetites for walks on the beach and swims in the sea.

“In a normal market, pre-Covid, the majority would come on at springtime, so February, March, April. They'd hit the market then so that people could be in them for the summer. That's when the interest would really peak,” said Ms Kearney.

But she is getting many more enquires wishing to buy than wanting to sell. Due to Covid, if the WiFi is good, many can as easily work overlooking the Atlantic as looking out at their back garden.

There are also reports of people selling their homes in Dublin, buying in Limerick and having enough left over to purchase a holiday home.

Again due to Covid, long awaited holidays will be in Costa del Ballybunion or Kilkee instead of Costa del Sol.

“The amount of emails and phonecalls tripled last year because of staycationers, but of course the supply dropped so you had this huge increase in demand, and complete drop in supply. And that goes for the summer rentals and everything.

“I think I got one property to sell last year, when normally I would get five or six, and this year I have two, and they might sell or they might not sell. It depends on how it goes,” said Ms Kearney.

And she isn’t alone.

“I was speaking to a colleague of mine in Cork and she's just tearing her hair out trying to get stuff. She's inundated, from the UK market especially. Her inbox is jamming with emails, trying to get something to buy or rent and she cannot get the properties for love nor money either,” said Ms Kearney.

The jump in prices is’t even tempting people, she says.

“Houses are reaching well over their asking price because of low supply. It’s a funny market because you think some people might be tempted to sell because the prices are going up. 

“They're saying that they are going to stay put for the moment because they have nowhere to go. They’re saying, ‘The kids, the grandkids need to come down here, they're all using the house this year’,” explained Ms Kearney.

There is yet another Covid link. The auctioneer said when we couldn’t go abroad last summer we got a deeper appreciation of the beauty on our own doorstep.

“I think people really got to appreciate what Ireland's seaside resorts have offered in the last year because I think we were all a bit blasé and took it for granted but now we are really beginning to see what they have.

“Like even the sea swimming, that's gone bananas. There's a great group of people in Kilkee who do it every single day. It’s a great social outlet for them, and very healthy. They love it. And they are saying, ‘We are very happy here, we are not going to sell, we are going to stay where we are’.”

“I think it has really made people fall in love with what they have in the Kilkees, the Ballybunions, the whole lot,” said Ms Kearney.

If only we could guarantee the weather or put a roof over them...