Limerick property prices rise by €15,000 in last three months

PROPERTY prices in Limerick have risen by €15,000 during the last three months, according to the latest MyHome.ie Property Price Report.

The report for Q3 2024, in association with Bank of Ireland, shows that the median asking price for a property in the county is now €275,000. This means prices have risen by €35,000 compared with this time last year.

Asking prices for a 3-bed semi-detached house in the county rose by €5,000 over the quarter to €265,000. This means that prices in the segment have risen by €25,000 compared to this time last year.

Meanwhile, the asking price for a 4-bed semi-detached house in Limerick rose by €15,000 over the quarter to €335,000. This price is up by €37,000 compared to this time last year.

There were 408 properties for sale in Limerick at the end of Q3 2024 – an increase of 11% over the quarter.

The average time for a property to go sale agreed in the county after being placed up for sale now stands at nearly three months. In the city, it is nearly two months.

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The author of the report, Conall MacCoille, chief economist at Bank of Ireland, said: “Perhaps the most striking news since our last MyHome report is that Ireland’s population grew by 1.9% pace for a second successive year, to 5.38 million in 2024. We have not seen population and economic growth at this level since the Celtic tiger era, and as a result the housing market is being put under intense pressure.

“A simple way to illustrate this is to ask how many homes Ireland would need to build to match the UK’s housing to population ratio. Our report shows that to ‘catch up’ with the UK’s housing stock would now require an additional 206,000 homes, versus 138,000 in 2020.”

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He added: “New instructions for sale in Q3, were up 2% on the year, but remain depressed. The overarching concern is that the tight housing market is now feeding on itself, with would-be vendors put off by for fear of failing to secure a property once they sell their own home."

Mr MacCoille said that despite extremely challenging market conditions, with intense demand and a sustained lack of adequate supply, it was promising to see housing starts rise to 49,000 in the year to July. 

“However, the rush of activity prior to the expected expiry of waivers on local authority development levies and infrastructure charges means it is hard to gauge when these starts will translate into completions. Still, housing activity has held up far better than expected to the threat to viability from build cost inflation and elevated energy costs.”

"The broad message from the MyHome asking price data is that the CSO’s official measure of house price inflation, based on transactions, looks set to peak in the coming months. 

“That said, residential property price inflation was 9.6% in July, ahead of our MyHome figures, because homebuyers are increasingly paying over and above the original asking price. Nonetheless, we still expect RPPI inflation to fall back in the coming months, and finish 2024 at 7.75%.”

Looking ahead to 2025, and noting another expected cut to ECB rates, Mr MacCoille said another mid-single digit price gain looks likely.

Joanne Geary, managing director of MyHome.ie, said: “It is heartening to see housing starts continue to rise as well as expectations that housing completions will exceed 40,000 units next year. This is the kind of trend we will need to see for years to come to redress the imbalance in the market, as epitomised in this latest report by our performance relative to that of the UK.”