Commenting on the most recent CSO Residential Property Price Index for February IPAV, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers, said the imbalance of demand over supply that auctioneers are currently seeing in the market is evident in the price increases in today’s index.
Pat Davitt, IPAV Chief Executive said many agents are reporting prices to date up close to 10 percent.
“This is attributable to vendors not putting properties on the market because they can only be viewed online and that simply is not working.
“It is causing a great shortfall of new instructions and for buyers’ property prices are only going one way while this remains the case,” Mr Davitt stated.
He said agents need to immediately get back to showing properties safely noting that the strong increase in prices outside of Dublin also indicates something of a new demand for non-urban properties, arising from new working arrangements emerging from the pandemic.
“This is evident in areas like the South-East with growth of 6.6 percent and in the West with an increase of 5.7 percent,” he said.
He said while overall Dublin prices are 21.2 percent below peak and 17.5 percent elsewhere “the last thing we need” is prices spiralling upwards.
“Rather we need to see supply ramped up so that the market develops in a sustainable way and avoids volatility,” Mr Davitt added.
He said builders must get back, safely, to building more homes adding that the Housing Commission promised in the Programme for Government needs to be set up urgently and involve all stakeholders in the housing market.
